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Problems and Possible Solutions for the OIC Member Countries
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2003. The new Banking Law No. 5411 of 2005 maintained the administrative and legal statue
of the SDIF.
As mentioned, from its first institutionalisation in 1983 until 2001, participation banks which
were classified as SFHs and did not benefit from the deposit insurance facilities. However, the
failure of Ihlas SFH in 2001 alerted the authorities of the importance of including Islamic banks
within the deposit insurance scheme.
In responding to the failure of Ihlas Finance in 2001 as a consequence of the financial crisis,
and its impact on the depositors, which created new social problems, SFHs became subject to
‘guarantee scheme’, as applied to conventional banks. With the amendment made to the
Banking Law No. 4389 in May 2001, SFH Assurance Fund within SFH Association was
established in a Shari’ah compliant manner. This implied that “special current accounts and
profit/loss participation accounts of natural persons … defined as deposits to be insured”
(Okumus, 2005: 56). By acquiring Participation Bank status with the new Banking Act No. 5411
in 2005, participation banks have been brought under the umbrella of a new ‘guarantee
scheme’ under the SDIF together with other banks. It should be noted that SFH Assurance Fund
worked in Shari’ah compliant manner, while the current guarantee scheme under SDIF works
in conventional terms. While this poses a dilemma, a survey of the countries with Islamic
finance presence demonstrates that except for Malaysia and Sudan, other countries including
Turkey provide deposit insurance and guarantee under the conventional system (Li, 2016: 11).
4.11.7. Human Capital and Knowledge Development Framework
In recent years, a number of academic and professional programmes have been initiated in
Turkey to respond to the increased Islamic finance activity. This has been the result of the
2013 ‘Workshop on Participation Banking and Interest-Free Finance’, jointly organised by
BRSA and PBAT, which covered ‘Education, Human Resources and Certification’ as one of the
nine areas or chapters of development. The Report developed from the workshop identified
and developed a number of strategies and actions to develop education and human resources
needs of the industry, which are as follows (BBDK and PBAT, 2014: 31-34): development of
master and PhD programmes in Islamic economics and finance, undertaking measures to
develop academic staff teaching and researching in Islamic finance, developing networks
between academics teaching and researching in Islamic finance, taking necessary measures to
develop literature in Turkish in Islamic finance and also developing textbooks in Islamic
finance, establishing of research centres and institutes, developing domestic certification
programmes, developing on the job training and internship opportunities, and develop
opportunities for the use of educational technologies for effective skill development.
Furthermore, the number of Islamic economics and finance master programmes being
undertaken and also the existence of the two private universities being licenced to commence
their undergraduate degrees in Islamic economics and finance since October 2016 should be
taken as an indication of the importance attached to the recommendations of the Workshop.
In further pinpointing the strategy development in line with the recommendations from the
Workshop, in PBAT’s 2015 Strategy Document, education, training, and certification related
areas are also critically developed and the relevant institutions and agencies were identified
for the tasks described (PBAT, 2015: 55-61).