By Rushdi Siddiqui, co-founder and managing director of Azka Capital

Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers. — Bryan Weiner.

Today, it seems Islamic finance is still stuck at a hard-copy of stage communication (faxes) when the financial world has moved on to Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc.

Many Islamic financial institutions have Web sites, but how often is it updated beyond awards won? How many Islamic banks, takaful operators, Shariah consulting firms, industry bodies, etc, are on Facebook? Yet, the youth — its future clients — in many Muslim countries with Islamic finance are on Facebook.

What about the cross-sell of Islamic finance to non-Muslims as an ethical alternative? These potential customers are an important cluster of social media and they are continuously looking for offerings aligned with their values.

Several Islamic financial institutions have Twitter accounts, unsure how many of their (retail) clients are on Twitter. Do these institutions believe SMS, Internet and mobile banking is the “social media” connection to their clients?

Maybe the culture of social media is lacking in, say, the GCC. But we saw how effectively social media was utilised during the Arab Spring.

Fear

Is there a fear of technology among Islamic financial institutions? The fear of hackers stealing from customer accounts and identity theft? They have heard about horror stories on hacking from US- and EU-based banks with allegedly better (read, more expensive) firewalls.

Is there fear that social media connectivity will raise the level of transparency to conventional benchmarks standards and with accountability to follow? Put differently, will social media result in enhanced governance? It is not a bad thing in this post-credit crisis environment where companies are rewarded via a stable stock price and rave reviews for transparency and governance.

Is there fear that “bad news” concerning Islamic financial institutions will spread like wildfire if (deeply) connected to social media? It will spread anyway as news organisation coverage is supplemented by bloggers and tweeters in real time.

Resources

Is it a lack of resource issue in having, say, a “chief social media officer”? It would appear that Islamic financial institutions have not looked at public relations and outreach as an investment in their brand, but, rather, a cost of doing business.

Brand-building goes towards commitment to not only clients and staff, but long-term growth of the institution, including eventual cross-border expansion and future clients. Furthermore, during challenging market cycles, the message to the community, whose attention has become shorter, is the confidence inspiring “business as usual”.

Guidance

The Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway, or IFG, may just provide a guidance for Islamic financial institutions on understanding about the benefits of social media connectivity. It comes down to market intelligence, and the market place is the best source of “knowledge that powers” market movements. The community connectivity function of the IFG comes down to insights by industry experts making sense of the information overload, communicating about important sign posts on the road ahead and allowing community to interface with experts on a secure platform.

LinkedIn, Twitter

At the behest of colleagues, I joined LinkedIn about a year ago to connect with like-minded colleagues globally to share ideas and articles. Outside of unsolicited endorsement of people I have connected with, but, not worked with, it has been a pleasant experience, especially reading leadership articles.

Furthermore, I started tweeting a few months ago, initially on Islamic finance and the halal industry, but have expanded to issues related to Muslims, Islam, Muslim countries, etc. It has been a fulfilling experience and I should have joined much earlier. Why?

1. Tweeting forces one to convey their message in 140 characters, becomes very important in today’s world of short-attention span and information overload. Islamic financial institutions should be able to convey thought leadership within these constraints.

2. Twitter brings news in real time from multiple eyes, hence, it’s a multiple “op-ed” of the market place on the subject matter. The raw news provides more colour than polished sound-bites.

3. Twitter has allowed me to follow the likes of global leaders like His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and his comments in real time. He first tweeted about Dubai being a hub for an Islamic economy a few months ago.

Conclusion

Shaikh Mohammed’s tweets, at the time of writing this, on the performance of UAE government standards should encourage Islamic financial institutions to engage and embrace the social media to not only connect, but also to report developments.

Rushdi Siddiqui is co-founder and managing director of Azka Capital, a private equity advisory firm focused on halal industry initiatives, and an advisor to Thomson Reuters on Islamic finance and the halal industry.

Leading journalist on Islamic finance tells why he is often ‘harsh’ on the industry and his other views

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; (to be) credible we must be truthful.” Edward Murrow.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

Dear Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, President, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group:

Asalaam Alaikum:

The Islamic finance world welcomes your comments on the ‘Mega’ Islamic Bank to effectively compete against well capitalized conventional financial institutions.

“…The ‘Mega Islamic Bank’ comes as an initiative of the Islamic Development Bank in its efforts to address the dearth of senior financiers, the absence of the Islamic tools of stock exchange and the absence of market liquidity between Islamic banks.”

However, $1 billion, with $500 million in paid capital by the three founders (IDB, Dallah Albaraka and Qatar Government), is smaller than three existing Islamic banks, which have never addressed themselves as ‘mega.’ The three include Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi, Qatar’s Mashraf Al Rayan and Kuwait’s Kuwait Finance House (KFH). Furthermore, it seems the ‘mega’ story may be incomplete without Malaysia’s participation.

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By Rushdi Siddiqui

Daud Vicary Abdullah is an authority on Islamic banking and has contributed to a number of books on the subject.

He has been in the finance and consulting industry for more than 38 years, with significant experience in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Meet Daud Vicary Abdullah, the president and CEO of International Centre of Education in Islamic Finance (Inceif), the global university of Islamic finance.
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March 14, 2012

By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

Provocative statements are commonplace in the world of politics, academia, business and finance. They serve a ‘perception of purpose’, from distraction to direction and denial to dissatisfaction.

Put differently, such comments are viewed as ‘info-tainment’ to stand out in a competitive market environment.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance

NEED FOR CONTROL ROOM: The industry has alphabet bodies that deal with various issues but when it comes to public relations and marketing, there seems to be a gaping hole that is getting larger

Is there a media and public relations (PR) “control room” for Islamic finance that educates, creates awareness, undertakes damage control, etc, so that the industry is “conventionally efficient” media-savvy?

Some recent headlines, by-lined articles, blogs and press releases from Islamic finance provide the answer:

* Is Islamic Finance a Failure? Reuters (Guest Columnist)

* KFH: Banking Products that Cement Value of Savings in Society, press release

* Islamic Banks Misleading: Clients Emirates 24/7 (Dubai, UAE)

* Reporters Notebook: The Ethical Aspects of Islamic Banks, www.greenprophet.com

* Most Trusted Middle East Banks, www.Alifarabia.com

* Questionable Islamic Banking Principles, www.freemalaysiatoday.com

* Shining Star of the Middle East, Financial News

* The Trillion Dollar Hoax, The Islamic Globe

* The Lessons from the Goldman Sachs Proposed US$2 Billion Sukuk Saga, Arab News

* Mega Islamic Bank Plans Cancelled, Gulf Daily News (Bahrain).

Let’s put aside those writers seeking publicity, cheerleaders of the industry, the anti-syariah movement and the well-meaning purest, and those who, unfortunately, have had a bad experience, from inappropriate products to fraud to customer service, in Islamic finance. The truth about Islamic finance is somewhere between “today’s offering and where we eventually want it to be tomorrow”.

The continued “conflicting” headlines should be the “cold water” wake-up call for the industry on two fronts:

ADDRESSING the substance, over form, of the Islamic finance, and;

CONVEYING its message, as the perception of the industry is not aligned to the objectives of movement, including raising/writing comments after “unbalanced, out-of-context, exaggerated, or untrue” articles in the media circles.

Industry body

Usually, industries, from finance and healthcare to technology, have financed a designated company/industry body to educate, lobby, promote to new customers and market, undertake damage control, and so on. Their broad message is supplemented and complimented by local institutions with customised local message.

For example, in many of non-Muslim countries with an established Muslim population, there are Muslim organisations, like Council of American Islamic Relations in the US or Muslim Council of Britain and so on, that, in effect, act as the “PR” arm for “righting wrongs, damage control, or addressing media/political errors of omission and commission”.

In Islamic finance, we have alphabet industry bodies: for accounting and auditing (Bahrain-based AAOIFI), for prudential regulations and governance (Malaysia-based IFSB), for Islamic capital and money market (Bahrain-based IIFM), etc.

Although, they have some common shareholders, let’s put aside the inability of these industry bodies to host one Islamic finance event that is supported by all of them. Let’s put aside lack of speaker invitation of one industry body to the head of its sister industry body for a presentation slot.

Notwithstanding present “turf” challenges, these industry bodies have done a commendable job of raising awareness and educating the wholesale stakeholders of the technical aspects of Islamic finance, in Muslim and non-Muslim countries, on standards, governance, and regulations. However, when it comes to the public relations and marketing of Islamic financial institutions or even damage control, there is a gaping hole and it is getting larger.

In fairness to the above-mentioned industry bodies, they have resource constraints, from manpower to finance, and, furthermore, expanding their mandate to include marketing and public relations for a geographically- dispersed and fragmented industry at various stages of development is unreasonable. However, something more needs to be done as Islamic finance is only strong as the weakest link.

The continued negative headlines will not go away even if we continue to ignore them or convince ourselves that it’s the growing pains of an emerging industry. They should be seen as the tip of the iceberg of issues and feedback on the industry’s perception/message.

Funding of body

The time has arrived for the majority to conclude there is need for an industry body that is tasked with public relations and marketing of Islamic finance at, say, the “wholesale level” - governments, regulators, financial institutions, law firms, western media, and so on. It allows for a universal message, a necessary pre-requisite to achieve harmonisation-cum-standardisation, that builds the foundation for local Islamic financial institutions to customise and add local content.

After determining a need for an industry body to promote and educate Islamic finance, the funding question must be addressed. Fortunately, the experience of AAOFI, IFSB, IIFM, etc, suggests the stakeholders could include the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Islamic financial institutions (possibly one from every country that has declared itself an Islamic finance hub), forward-looking governments like Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and possibly the existing industry bodies (to include their technical message).

One of the lessons learned from the existing industry bodies is the need for adequate capitalisation and annual budget (adjusted for demand). It makes no sense to provide a shoestring budget when the objectives are global and the awareness and education is on-going and expanding.

Location of industry body

One of the takeaways about an industry body’s location is that it raises the profile of the country and the country raises the profile of the industry body, as there is now a “go to” place on the global map. Thus, bodies like the AAOIFI, IIFM and IIRA have raised the profile of Bahrain, while the IFSB, ISRA, and INCIEF have raised that of Malaysia.

Therefore, Dubai (UAE), Qatar, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brunei or even London, Paris, or Luxembourg have an opportunity to host an industry body that promotes awareness and information about Islamic finance and shows their commitment to the industry. Furthermore, much like the phrase “think global, act local”, it makes to have geographically situated satellite offices to address local time zone challenges.

Mandates

Beyond awareness, education, damage control, etc, one of the areas that require immediate attention is a more robust investor relations depart of Islamic financial institution, including addressing media training for executives. The media, especially western, wants access to senior executives, which implies challenging questions, and, it is here that the industry can best utilise them to send its message to the masses globally.

Additional responsibilities could include establishing and hosting a Davos-type event, including the US$640 billion (RM1.9 trillion) halal industry, in Europe, the Gulf and Southeast Asia. Thus, not Islamic finance per se, but the link of Islamic finance and funding education, healthcare, infrastructure, know-ledge-based economy, etc.

Some examples where the proposed PR Islamic body could have provided guidance for clear, coherent and concise clarifications:

SCHOLARS (confusion as to their role in the West), purification and zakat (not funnelling money to financing extremists), money exchange places in Muslim countries are not Islamic financial institutions, etc.

COORDINATE with other industry bodies for job openings, direct inquiries to appropriate industry bodies and Islamic financial institutions (reduce information cost for existing/potential users)

PRODUCT launches, new bank/takaful launched, etc. I’m not convinced that a general or financial PR firm can provide the needed specialised message and follow-ups that a dedicated body can direct.

DAMAGE control includes recent media frenzy on Islamic banking in Nigeria, Goldman Sachs’ US$2 billion sukuk, sukuk defaults, Islamic funds closing, Islamic bank (Dubai Bank and Islamic Bank of Britain) rescue, etc.

BRANDING of Islamic finance. Has time arrived to survey the stakeholders on the naming? In Turkey, its called Participation Banking and it conveys the essence and objective of the movement and is less politically charged, especially if Islamic finance is for all mankind.

Continuing to call it “Islamic”, combined with marketing materials emphasising syariah board and adherence, may not convey its universality.

Many of these issues also go to trust and confidence of Islamic finance by depositors, investors, shareholders, etc.

Conclusion

Although Islamic finance is less than 40 years old, the time has arrived for the industry to have a dedicated well-financed body to send a coherent and consistent message about the industry. This is an investment and not a cost, and not having such a body is to have continued schizophrenia headlines and resulting systemic brand risk.

Rushdi Siddiqui is the global head of Islamic finance at Thomson Reuters

January 17, 2012

By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

“The proper man understands equity, the small man profits.” Confucius.

The year 2011 was the year for [Malaysia] Shariah compliant index out-performance against all conventional developed and emerging market country indicies and almost all frontier countries.

The Islamic finance industry has not talked up the Islamic equity capital market story, as the Islamic debt capital market poster child, ‘Sukuk,’ has become the alter-ego of Islamic finance. But, does that amount to concentration brand and business risk for a $1 trillion, where Sukuk are, at best, 20% of Islamic finance?
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance at Thomson Reuters

The time has arrived to take a deeper dive on better understanding of Shariah compliant companies in an Islamic (or Shariah compliant) equity indexes. To many informed and uninformed observers of Islamic equity investing, it seems to imply investing in publicly listed companies in Muslim countries.

The end results contradict the assumptions. This also rebuts the often heard allegations by many from the anti-Shariah movement that Islamic investing is about investing in companies linked to terrorism or financing terrorism. The largest companies in the S&P Global BMI Shariah include ExxonMobil, IBM, Chevron, Nestle, Microsoft, etc.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

‘Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.’ - Steven Pressfield

On November 22, 2011, the world’s first Islamic interbank benchmark rate (IIBR) was launched. It is the result of a collaborative approach taken by many Islamic financial institution, industry associations, and Shariah scholars, over the course of 24 months, to a decades-old industry challenge: how to decouple Islamic finance from a conventional Western pricing benchmark (LIBOR) and the law of necessity when an ‘Islamic’ alternative was not available. The objective was to support and preserve Islamic finance authenticity.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Head Of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters 2011

A conference on the future and expansion of takaful, called Takaful Rendezvous 2011, took place in Malaysia under the banner of Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum (KLIFF) from October 4 to 6. Although the industry has come far in a short period of time, more needs to be done.

Much like the $640-billion (Dh2.35 trillion) halal industry, takaful needs to rise and address some of the challenges on size, representative industry body, and perception.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

Failure is a mark of success in venture capital, hence, it is an option with beneficial learning consequences.

Today, Islamic venture capital is a feel-good theory presented at (not many) conferences about the lofty goals of this niche market with the focus on the formalism of structuring and screening. Its impact investing, yet we seem to see it as a cost (at best) and a write-off (at worst).
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I have been fortunate enough to be involved in many interesting conversations over the years from the potentially practical (Islamic stock exchange, Islamic LIBOR, convergence between Islamic finance and Halal industry), to potentially flawed (Islamic inflation, Islamic unemployment, consumer price index (CPI), Islamic car, Islamic washing machine), and the potentially feasible (Islamic currency, Dinar).

While some of these topics are ideally suited as conference panel sessions, research topics for academic papers, and even awards for innovation, we need to reflect on the source of ideas that connect to the roots of Muslims in a meaningful manner. Concurrently, these same ideas should also click and tick with the non-Muslim community.
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At the Joint High Level Conference on Islamic Finance in Jakarta, Indonesia, co- organized by Bank Negara Malaysia and Bank Indonesia, the question I wanted to address was:

Does Islamic Finance have A.I.R. (Authenticity, Innovation & Reach) or is it just hot air?
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Islamic finance did not invent or innovate negative screening for publicly listed companies to arrive at a sub- universe of “ethical” companies. In fact, Islamic equity investing is a subset of ethical investing, hence, there are shared values to do the “good by avoiding the bad.”

The best way to explain these common values is to show how a typical conversation takes place between a financial consultant (FC) and a client.

After understanding the risk profile, investment objectives and time horizons of a client, what follows is a discussion on how the screening process works in layman’s terms.

The first question to ask would be:

Are you interested in investing in companies whose primary business involves:

• Adult entertainment (pornography)
• Alcohol
• Gambling/hotels
• Tobacco
• Cinema and broadcasting
• Conventional insurance
• Conventional financial services
• Music
• Mortgage and lease
• Non-operating interest income
• Pork

Investors of conscious typically do not invest their hard-earned savings in the first four areas. Obviously, they are interested in making money, but it’s not a pure-play profits story for them.

Financial ratios
The FC then says there is another level of financial screening and it entails three ratios.

The first financial ratio entails how much debt or leverage a company has on its balance sheet. If it has more than 33 per cent debt-to-market capitalisation, then the company is removed from investment consideration.

The debt screen removes highly indebted companies, which many analysts, fund managers and stock pickers look at to assess the health pulse of the company.

Obviously, the debt-light companies are more in demand as they can better survive down markets, and many banks/bond buyers often impose debt covenants on the borrowing company. So, debt considerations are not a novel concept.

The next financial ratio is the accounts receivable of a company, it should not be more than 33 per cent of its market capitalisation. Thus, if the company is having difficulty translating sales into earnings, which can be used for internal funding, dividends for shareholders, acquisitions, then, obviously, its stock typically underperforms.

The final financial ratio is non-operating interest income, and it is expressed as a sum of cash, deposits and interest- bearing debt-to-market capitalisation of not more than 33 per cent.

It is basically flushing out the interest income analysis of the company. The company is relying too much on non-operating interest income, hence, these type of companies may actually under-perform its peers. Some may even be ripe for an acquisition.

Thus, a reasonable question would be: are shareholders investing in a company where the vision of its executives and board is focused on generating non-operating interest income rather than building growth plans that provide value to its customers?

After explaining the above screening process, the FC will then say they want to make sure the companies stay within the outlined parameters, so they will review the companies on a quarterly basis for continued compliance.

Obviously, the primary business of a company does not change often, except when acquired or merged with a non-industry player. It’s the debt screen, debt-to-market capitalisation of not more than 33 per cent that results in companies being removed, but they are typically medium and small capitalised companies. However, to reduce the bandwidth of volatility associated with market capitalisation, as there may be sell-offs in the marketplace due to external events like the credit crisis, we would use a trailing 12-month average.

The FC then shows the top screened companies from the S&P Global “screened” Index.

As of March 28, 2011, the company names include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Nestle, IBM, Microsoft, P&G, J&J, BHP Billington, Coca Cola, and Novartis. One can see that these are global brands that are liquid and large capitalised organisations with a bias towards three sectors: technology, health care and energy. The client investor then says there is nothing Islamic about these sectors or companies, as these are headquartered and publicly listed in the western world and categorized as low-debt, non-financial ethical investing. Exactly!

Finally, all the screening in the world is an academic exercise unless there is market performance and/or out-performance. Chart shows the S&P Global “screened” index (orange line) with not only a high correlation, but also outperforming the S&P Global BMI (black line) from Nov 2007 to May 2011, a period that included the credit crisis.

Thus, Islamic investing does not have a monopoly on doing good, by avoiding the bad, its common shared values with all investors of conscience.

The price of oil is not the only ‘greaser’ for expansion of Islamic finance. Lately, a number of countries seem to be pre-empting social-movement-cum-change of regime as today’s ‘oil price’ facilitator for welcoming Islamic finance.

But what happens to Islamic finance when alternative energy, solar, bio-mass, wind, ocean, etc., becomes a viable replacement for oil or oil has simply ‘run dry,’ or ‘Arab street democracy’ arrives in the Muslim OPEC countries, or even the anti-Shariah movements in selected western countries finds another ‘boogeyman?”
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Innovation and the ensuing needed authenticity are the pre-requisites to move Islamic finance to 2.0 or $2-Trillion by 2015.

But, how best to describe innovation in Islamic finance? Famous quotes often capture succinctly the essence of the issue, and, for innovation in Islamic finance, the below quotes are a good beginning.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head, Islamic Finance & OIC Countries, Thomson Reuters

Questions for Islamic Finance

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” - Anais Nin

I used this quote as I wanted to share with the readers a sample of questions posed to me during the last few years of travel in Europe, GCC and ASEAN countries. These questions originate from people from all walks of life, whom in one way or another form opinions of their own and see Islamic finance from their own lenses.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head, Islamic Finance & OIC Countries Thomson Reuters

It’s polling time once again in Islamic finance, but, today, we survey two major developments: Arab revolution and death of Osama Bin Laden (OBL), and examine the consequences, if any, on Islamic finance on the Maghreb and anti-Shariah countries.

Interestingly, the million-dollar mansion living OBL and his executive team camped in ‘cave gate-aways’ witnessed in real time the Al Qaeda ideology of hate, mayhem and murder discredited by a highly educated, but very poor Tunisian fruit-seller seeking dignity of work in providing for his family.
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