Along with the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) and the Malaysian Islamic financial community, SWIFT is launching a new rulebook for the use of SWIFT MT messages for Islamic finance.
The rulebook will provide greater clarity around SWIFT MT message usage based on Islamic principles in order to enable straight-through processing (STP), improving efficiency as well as reducing risk and cost.
SWIFT MT will provide an efficient platform for exchanging Islamic finance messages and further promote the usage of message standards.
"Globally, the growing interest in Islamic finance as a viable alternative to conventional finance has heightened awareness of the need to adopt international standards to automate paper-based Islamic finance operations," says Kiyono Hasaka, standards specialist for Asia Pacific at SWIFT.
"With SWIFT's growing presence in Southeast Asia, we are well positioned to act as an enabler to bring the financial communities together, define market practice and automate Islamic finance processes using international messaging standards."
The SWIFT Asia Pacific team has been working in closely with the Malaysian Islamic financial community to develop STP-enabled financial messaging specific to the requirements of Islamic financial institutions since 2013.
Yusry Yusoff, executive director of AIBIM, said: "This initiative marks a significant development in furthering the level of efficiency for Islamic finance transactions particularly, in ensuring compliance to Shariah requirements."
The SWIFT Islamic Financial Rulebook will be available to the Message User Group by the end of 2014.
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