A new approach to product development in Islamic finance

Abstract

Islamic Finance is a banking sector which caters to the Muslim population's banking needs by complying with the Islamic financial law. In this research some of the most prevalent financial products in Islamic Finance are surveyed and various forms of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are studied. Two issues of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are analyzed in detail. This analysis involves determining how well Sukuks serve the needs of Islamic Finance customers and also their shortcomings. In order to develop more customer-need centric financial products in Islamic Finance a new product development template is proposed. This template is a step-by-step process of developing Islamic financial products and is derived from the best practices of product development in the engineering domain. This methodology aims to formalize and improve the product development process in Islamic Finance. As an illustration of the proposed template, a new product is developed for Islamic Finance using this template. This example illustrates how religious restrictions in Islamic Finance dictate the form and substance of financial products during their development.