CHARTING A NEW COURSE

With Malaysia’s biggest bank opening its first overseas branch in Dubai, will the industry benefit from greater collaboration?

- Aarti Nagraj

The Islamic economy has been thriving in the last few decades, with worldwide spending on the sector estimated to reach a whopping $3.2 trillion by 2024.

Within the industry, Malaysia, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia lead the rankings out of 73 countries, according to the latest edition of the annual State of the Global Islamic Economy survey done by research company DinarStandard, released late last year.

The report, which covers sectors including Islamic finance, halal food, modest fashion, Muslim-friendly travel, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and Islamic-themed media, found that Islamic finance is the largest sector, amounting to a staggering $2.5 trillion in 2018.

While Malaysia topped in the Islamic finance and travel categories, the UAE led in the five other sectors, it found.

It is in order to tap into this booming cross-country growth segment that Malaysia’s biggest Islamic bank – Maybank Islamic – recently launched operations in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) – marking its first overseas office.

Maybank Islamic, the Shariah-compliant division of Malaysia’s largest lender Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), was granted the full Islamic banking licence from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in July 2019.

Last month, at a gala launch event peppered with 3D videos that saw Dubai’s Deputy Ruler and president of the DIFC Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum attend, the Malaysian lender’s CEO stressed that its plan was to become a “link between the GCC countries and the world’s fifth-largest economy that is the ASEAN economic community”.