Standard Bank is proud to announce that its Shari’ah Banking solution has been awarded the Best Emerging Islamic Banking Window 2020 and the Excellence Award for Premier Islamic Banking Services 2020 in the 10th annual Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) 2020, which took place on the 14th of September 2020.
The GIFA awards celebrate achievements and contributions of institutions and individuals towards the development and expansion of the Islamic banking and finance industry. By doing so, it aims to highlight and promote those who have made significant strides in thought leadership, implemented world-class initiatives, and developed industry-leading products and services at scale.
Standard Bank launched Shari’ah compliant solutions to the Retail market in 2016, “Our aim is to always provide a fully inclusive Shari’ah-compliant banking solution to our customers,” says Mohammed Ameen Hassen, the Head of Shari’ah Banking at Standard Bank. “This means truly understanding the needs of our customers and design solutions with the customer at the heart of the design process, applying the latest technology all while ensuring the highest levels of Shari’ah compliance.”
Over the past two years, the team has been hard at work in bringing world and Southern African firsts to the market. Some of these include:
Diners Shari’ah Charge Card: The first Shari’ah Compliant Diners product in the world, and the first Shari’ah compliant personal charge card in South Africa
Merchant Capital Advance: The first Shari’ah-compliant unsecured working capital facility deployed upon agile Fintech infrastructure that allows a merchant to obtain funding in under 48 hours
Limited Edition Endowment: The first Shari’ah compliant tax-efficient endowment product in the market.
In response to a growing call from customers, Standard Bank has set out on a journey to bring Shari’ah-compliant products and services to their customers across their operations, and, while this journey is still in its early years, much progress has been made with 14 products and services now available.
“This is definitely a proud moment for us as a Bank and all the work that has been done to ensure that our Shari’ah Banking solution serves our customers as best as possible. The award is an endorsement of Standard Bank’s collective efforts in always being at the forefront of creating integrated solutions that help individuals and businesses to grow and access a wider customer base. It is also the ratification of where we are in our journey as an emerging player within the global Islamic Financial Services industry, with us being just under four years old, there is much still to be done. We are grateful to the GIFA awards committee for recognising these efforts and God willing, this will be the first of many” concludes Hassen.