Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, as part of continuous endeavor to provide world class services through the latest technology and innovation, has upgraded its core banking system, resulting in a host of cutting edge and first-of-its-kind Islamic banking services covering ATM/CDM, debit card and mobile banking for Meethaq customers, according to the bank’s website.
The entity now functions with the new iMAL Islamic core banking system.
Sulaiman Al Harthy, group general manager for Islamic banking, said: “Meethaq is delighted to successfully implement the upgrade to a state-of-the-art Islamic core banking solution incorporating the latest technology to meet the bank’s requirements of Sharia compliance, cost-optimization, improving profitability and serving customers faster and efficiently. With this upgrade, the bank is able to fulfill numerous new business requirements and customer demands.”
Al Harthy added: “The upgrade stems from Meethaq’s commitment and focus to take the lead role in offering a suite of Sharia-based banking products and services. Meethaq has adopted the best practices in Islamic banking and finance worldwide to combine a robust model, which protects customers and complements the Islamic banking industry.
“The Meethaq strategy is to attract customers through innovative Sharia-based products and services. We thank our customers for their cooperation during the upgrade.”
Mohammed Kateeb, group chairman and CEO of Path Solutions, said: “It is exciting to see the results of the partnership between Bank Muscat and Path Solutions, bringing the bank’s Meethaq Islamic operations to a successful upgrade to iMAL core banking. The partnership with the flagship financial services provider and the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman endorses the leadership position of Path Solutions as the number one provider of Islamic banking IT solutions. I congratulate both organizations on this amazing success.”
iMAL is a Sharia-compliant core banking system certified by the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions . It is an integrated, modular Islamic banking suite with full functionality, including retail, corporate, investment, trade finance, and treasury modules. It supports multi-company and multi-bank environments and is truly global in scope, incorporating both multi-currency and multilingual capabilities. In addition, iMAL contains robust risk management and security features that provide a flexible, user-friendly interface while allowing Islamic banks to have complete control over their financial systems.
1st Islamic Bank in Ghana
Also in Ghana, the central bank has revealed that the country could see the arrival of the first Islamic bank in operation, according to pulse.com.
The Saudi Arabian institution secured a provisional license from Bank of Ghana to start operations last year.
However, it had to ask for an extension till November because of challenges in meeting all key banking requirements.
Islamic finance may be viewed as a form of ethical investing, or ethical lending where no loans are possible unless they are interest-free.
Among the ethical restrictions is the prohibition on alcohol and gambling and the consumption of pork, that is, Islamic funds would never knowingly invest in companies involved in gambling, alcoholic beverages, or porcine food products.
Its practitioners and clients need not be Muslim, but they must accept the ethical restrictions underscored by Islamic values.
Head of banking supervision of Bank of Ghana, Franklyn Belyne says the regulator is waiting for some final requirements to be met by the yet-to-be-named bank before it can start operations.
Islamic banking is currently gaining popularity in some European countries.
