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Risk Management in

Islamic Financial Instruments

131

(murabahah), where the MFI can buy a good and sell the object at higher price, and 2) ijarah,

where the MFI can lease objects for a fixed price and time.

Microtakaful is a second way of increasing financial inclusion. Conventional insurance services

are not Shariah compliant, due to the inherent high level of uncertainty. Takaful is a mutual

guarantee that functions by bringing together a group of people who contribute to a fund

managed by a takaful operator (TO). There are three takaful models: mudarabah, wikala, and

waqf. Mudarabah consists of a partnership relationship in which the participants contribute to

a fund and the TO invests the funds. The TO retains a certain amount of the profit, and the rest

is divided amongst the participants. In the wikala model, the TO’s compensation is not

dependent on the investment s/he makes. Instead, the TO acts as an agent and charges fixed

management fees for his service. The third model is waqf, where the participants add to a waqf

fund that the TO creates. The TO can choose to either be a partner or agent with the waqf

model (Ahmed 211-213). Furthermore, to target the poorest of the poor, mandatory zakat and

voluntary waqf funds can be used to create grants and interest-free loans for MFIs (Ahmed

211-212).

6.8. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

6.8.1 Recommendations from the Risk Management Survey

We offer the following recommendations from the survey done in chapter 5.

(a) Training, research and development

IFIs must ensure proper training for their staff on various updated technologies that bankers

have to rely on for better analysis of the issues relevant to risk management in IFIs. IFIs should

increase investment in research and development activities to find challenges beforehand.

(b) Collaboration among IFIs and with external stakeholders

Active collaboration with international organizations may offer valuable insights into

challenges from various dimensions. In the absence of a strong secondary market, banks can

form a platform within themselves to solve liquidity problems. This kind of collaboration will

also help in preparing a strong country risk report.

(c) Investment in technology

In order get better estimations and communication updates, IFIs must invest in new

technologies to make sure that the staff is getting the right information at the right time. Since

the basic setup of the risk management system is already established, IFIs need to upgrade

their experience using cutting edge technology.

(d) Stop competing with conventional banks

Even though it is not entirely possible for many years to come, IFIs must stop competing with

the conventional banks. Conventional banking risks and those of IFIs are never the same. Many

IFIs are operating in dual banking systems and are primarily threatened by monetary systems