Another lender has entered the nascent Islamic banking market in Australia as fintech platform Mambu announced their Sharia Saas product.
Their new product will see them offer banking organisations the capability to expand their offerings to observant Muslim customers, with a Cloud-native platform that uses Mambu’s backend. By adapting their Saas offering, Mambu are looking to reach the millions of Muslim customers, and the companies that serve them, in a way that is compatible with their religious beliefs.
Islamic banking is an established product in Muslim-majority nations and in countries with large Muslim populations: under interpretations of Islam, banking cannot be performed in a way that draws interest to the lender, and thus alternative solutions must be found.
The Islamic banking market is still in its infancy in Australia, but has been growing in recent years: earlier this month, major aggregator Finsure joined with Hejaz Financial Services to launch Australia’s first Islamic mortgage product.
Mambu have already announced partnerships with Islamic banks as part of their new product. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, who are seeking to launch the first Shariah-compliant digital bank, have taken on Mambu’s Saas to help them design an Islamic product for customers.
“We view digitisation as a competitive advantage that is helping Bank Islam reach new customers and provide them with products that are aligned with their values,” said Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, CEO of Bank Islam. “As we collaborate with a multitude of partners there are no boundaries in rethinking our business model and transforming our operations. This gives us a unique opportunity to create an open banking ecosystem to grow business and operate like a modern, platform-based tech company."
Elliott Lamb, Mambu’s Chief Customer Officer, added: "We are delighted that Bank Islam has chosen Mambu’s platform to build their CDX’s greenfield operations on. It is an honour to work alongside Bank Islam and their mission to improve access to digital banking services for all, supporting economic development and financial inclusion through internet and mobile banking. Bank Islam continues to push itself to be the leading Islamic bank in the region and the CDX solution will make strides. We look forward to collaborating with them, as they embark on this exciting new phase of their journey.”
