The Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement rely on the world making $6 trillion in infrastructure investment every year, funds which are difficult to channel into infrastructure   High investment sizes, illiquid markets and a complex web of contracts limit infrastructure investment to only the largest institutional investors   Fasset has launched a blockchain powered platform to increase liquidity and expand the investor base for infrastructure by digitizing real assets

RFI Foundation and DDCAP Group™ are excited to jointly announce the release of a case study and podcast showing how DDCAP’s experience demonstrates how SMEs can influence others to adopt responsible finance.  Despite lacking the scale of the financial institutions with whom they work, SMEs in responsible finance can leverage their agility as an advantage and benefit from adopting sustainable and responsible practices more quickly than other institutions. For DDCAP Group™, these actions have deep roots in the history of the company but have become gradually more formalized across its governance structure.  Some of the impetus has come through their membership in the RFI Foundation and to fulfill the commitments they have made as a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and as an endorser of the Principles for Responsible Banking. One of the DDCAP’s key strengths is their integration of Sustainable and Responsible Actions (SRA) into their day-to-day business operations.  With their example, they offer a roadmap for other SMEs wishing to follow in translating principles into practice.  The roadmap outlines how SMEs can start small with top-down initiatives that gain buy-in across key stakeholders in leadership positions.  SMEs that build leadership commitment to responsible finance can open up their efforts to encourage bottom up initiatives and create a more rigorous governance structure review existing and develop new initiatives.  Through this process, SMEs can readily embed SRAs across the company to support the creation of a strong culture around common values to create new competitive advantage. Blake Goud, CEO of the RFI Foundation, commented: “By following the leadership of the amazing examples of leadership in responsible finance across RFI’s network of members, we hope to catalyze activities that support an equitable, inclusive and sustainable economy.  All of those who aspire to embody the shared values of responsible finance can establish themselves as market leaders by adopting responsible finance best practices as embodied by the actions of our members.” Stella Cox CBE, Managing Director of DDCAP Group™, added: “We see a clear need amongst financial services sector SMEs to identify an efficient route to the embodiment of sustainable and responsible practice in their culture, business and operations. Through the release of this case study and podcast, we hope that other SMEs will use the roadmap we have found to develop their own unique approach.” The case study is available from the RFI Foundation website at www.rfi-foundation.org and the DDCAP Group™ website at www.ddcap.co.uk. The podcast is released as an episode of the “Responsible Finance Podcast” series available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Stitcher and Podbean.

This session, a replay of a webinar released on 11 May 2020 organized by RFI Foundation and Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), looks at the role for Islamic finance in the Covid-19 response.   Speakers:  Blake Goud, CEO, RFI Foundation (Moderator) Abdulla Al Awar, CEO, DIEDC Ramya Gopalan, Global Innovation Coordinator and Alternative Financing Lead, IFRC Rafe Haneef, Chief Executive Officer, Group Transaction Banking, CIMB Khaled Al Aboodi, Managing Partner, Sustainable Finance Solutions Discussion questions: What is the scope of the challenge from Covid-19 for OIC countries? Is the impact of Covid-19 different than Western countries? What are the major points of need that financial institutions can address? What challenges do Islamic financial institutions face looking beyond the immediate Covid shock in OIC markets, especially in relation to expanding their focus on Maqasid/SDG/ESG related issues? What existing needs within OIC countries has Covid-19 highlighted, and how can Islamic and responsible finance provide a unique solution? Key conclusions: The response to Covid will come in two phases: crisis response and rebuilding Islamic finance does not come equipped with the same intrinsic features that insulate it the way it did in the Great Financial Crisis, and it has to focus on its core ethical values to distinguish itself post-crisis Growth of responsible finance has helped change investors' expectations to find a better balance between economic and social impact, and Islamic finance can benefit by focusing more efforts on social impact

Shariah screens limit the number of defensive assets available for asset managers in narrow  markets where  financial institutions represent 25-30% of the market Investment managers can offset some of the additional risk by using ESG integration strategies, as well as investing in global sukuk The institutionalization of Shari'ah standards gives Islamic asset managers a  leg up compared to ESG in terms of clarity about how their investment  process is affected by their approach to responsible finance

This month, we are featuring an update to our podcast with Matthew Martin, Founder & CEO of Blossom Finance that we released in June of last year.  In this update podcast, Matthew gives us an update on Blossom Finance, which have recently closed the world’s first microsukuk. Blossom's sukuk is notable for a number of reasons, including its proof-of-concept size of IDR 702 million ($50,000) and its use of blockchain to manage the KYC, issuance, periodic payments, trading and redemption.  It also uses a mudaraba structure that replaces a fixed coupon with a periodic payments that pass-through the investor's share of profits on a monthly basis during its one-year tenor.  The funds raised in the sukuk will fund business microfinancing for MSMEs by BMT Bina Ummah, an Islamic microfinance institution in Yogyakarta.   You can find out more about Blossom Finance at www.blossomfinance.com.  

This episode of the RFI podcast features an interview with Dr. Shalini Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Sanshodhan: An E-Waste Exchange, the winner of the 2019 Support Disruption for Good Challenge sponsored by DDCAP Group.  Dr. Shalini accepted the award and presented Sanshodhan to the audience of responsible finance leaders in April 2019 at the RFI Summit at Abu Dhabi Global Markets.  In the podcast, she introduces Sanshodhan and provides an update on their progress since the last time we heard from her in April. 

The RFI Foundation is excited to announce the release of an in-depth case study of one of our member financial institutions, CIMB Islamic Bank (“CIMB Islamic”), which has adopted responsible finance practices in a systematic way. The case study and this companion podcast are designed to show that it is possible for an Islamic bank to integrate responsible finance practices into its operations and strategy and to generate wide stakeholder buy-in based on a fundamental business rationale.  The case study and podcast expand a shorter case study that was included in the Refinitiv-RFI Foundation report titled “Islamic Finance ESG Outlook 2019”, which was released during the RFI Summit 2019. The report, which also includes knowledge-building materials created by RFI Foundation in collaboration with Refinitiv, focused on the financial materiality of responsible finance for Islamic financial institutions. Taken together, the case study, podcast and report demonstrate there is a defensible, clear business case for Islamic banks to seek out strategic advantage in responsible finance. CIMB Islamic, and the whole CIMB Group, have shown through their actions that there is a repeatable process for Islamic banks to adopt responsible finance practices. Focused on CIMB Islamic, this podcast documents how CIMB Group achieved buy-in from a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders, including management, shareholders and directors, with the support of employees who are passionate about sustainability, particularly millennials.

This month, we are featuring an interview with Stella Cox CBE, Managing Director of DDCAP Group.  As you’ll hear, she has been involved with the Islamic finance industry for many years and has been a consistent champion for Islamic finance, responsible finance and women in the financial sector.  Ms. Cox was a member of the UK Government’s Task Force on Islamic Finance that advised the government on its debut sukuk issuance, one of the first from a non-Muslim majority country sovereign issuer.  Her other contributions to the development of Islamic finance are too numerous to mention in full here, but we’ll cover a few of her most important contributions to Islamic finance in our interview.

When the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) launched their Credit Rating Initiative, one of the six founding members was RAM Ratings, after interacting with WWF and Saturna Capital on sustainable finance and understanding how a credit rating agency could drive change. RAM Ratings was the first domestic credit rating agency in Malaysia when it was set up in 1990. In the time since, as Malaysia has developed Islamic capital markets, RAM has rated many of the sukuk issued as Malaysia’s sukuk market became the most liquid in the world. RAM extended its innovation in Islamic finance to sustainable finance through RAM Consultancy, a provider of sustainability services and ESG analytics that plays a vital role as an industry catalyst for both. RAM Consultancy CEO Promod Dass, who was previously Deputy CEO for RAM Ratings, linked the evolution from Islamic finance to responsible finance. Speaking with the RFI podcast, he said: “It was natural for us to envisage the strong linkages or shared values between the ethical/responsible finance elements in Islamic finance as well as sustainability and ESG.” Listen to the rest of the podcast to learn more about how ESG factors are becoming systematically and transparently integrated into credit rating methodologies, and how Islamic finance, sustainability and ESG intersect and complement one another in understanding and measuring investment and financing risks. 

This month, we are featuring an interview with Talal Yassine, OAM, Managing Director of Crescent Wealth, who is also a member of the RFI Foundation Board of Trustees.  In addition to his work at Crescent Wealth, he’s active across a range of organizations in Australia.  Talal is an Adjunct Professor within the Business School, Western Sydney University he is Chairman of Quay Capital, the Australian Arab Dialogue Limited, and as the Patron of the Crescent Institute Ltd. He also serves on the Board of the Whitlam Institute Ltd. Talal has previously served on the Board of Australia Post, Sydney Ports, Macquarie University and as the Chairman of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Council of Australian Arab Relations.

This month, we are featuring an interview with Mounir Khouzami, Executive Board Member, Chairman of the Advisory Board and Co-Founder of Swiss Arab Network, who has also recently joined the RFI Foundation Board of Trustees.  As he will explain, Mounir is working across three nonprofits to advance his personal mission of being an “intercultural bridge builder”.  He has spent the past 10 years, most recently with UBS, working on strategy, innovation, change management in finance. We also discuss what we have learned from the last two RFI Summits and what we are looking forward to for RFI Summit 2019.

This episode of the podcast features an interview with Inge Relph, Head of Sustainability & Strategic Relationships of the ERA Foundation, who has also recently joined the RFI Foundation Board of Trustees.  Inge’s career has been guided by the global dimensions on human rights and how women can play an important role in the process of peacebuilding. She has taken a hands-on approach to her work including living in Egypt and mentoring women leaders through conflicts in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Syria.  Her career has included stops consulting for the United Nations, executive roles in the private sector and founding a number of nonprofit organizations.  She was a Senior Advisor to The Elders, a group of senior statespeople including Kofi Annan, President Carter, Gro Brundtland and others, during the landmark year of the SDG agreement and Paris Accord on environment.

Diane Schrader is Founder & CEO of thirdACT.  ThirdACT is a FinTech working to drive resiliency in communities with non-debt financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy investment. Instead of using debt, thirdACT finances properties’ energy efficiency upgrades in exchange for a share of future sale proceed for the next 20-30 years. This structure provides an uncertain individual property level return that, with help from big data, can be combined together into a portfolio that meets investor needs. 

We have been doing the podcast now for a year – this is the thirteenth episode – and so we’re going to change up the podcast with a guest host.  Our guest host is Stuart Hutton, Chief Investment Officer of Simply Ethical, and he’ll interview Blake Goud, CEO of the RFI Foundation about RFI.  In the conversation, Blake shares the history of the RFI Foundation, why it was set up, what it has accomplished so far and what it's working on for the rest of the year.  We had a lot of good conversations in the first year of the podcast, and we are always interested to have feedback.  If you have any feedback, including suggestions for future guests, please drop us an email at info@rfi-foundation.org, or tweet it to us @RFIFoundation.

Michael Looft has lived a storied life. A globe trotter by nature, he’s worked and traveled in upwards of 50 countries around the world. Michael has spent over a decade working in financial services for the poor (microfinance) at the crowdfunding organizations Kiva and Lendahand. He holds graduate degrees from both St. John's College and Harvard.    Michael has published three books. His latest book is the novel Crossing Allenby Bridge, a story of a man whose adventures around Asia and the Middle East teach him how lead with love through microfinance and Islamic finance. He has also published two non-fiction works: Inspired Finance and Social Impact Finance. When he is not writing or traveling the world eating exotic foods and meeting interesting people, Michael can be found either trail running or camping with his son. You can visit him at michaellooft.com

Matthew Joseph Martin is an early pioneer in the application of financial tech for responsible finance. Combining his passion for Islamic finance with his deep financial technology background, Matthew founded Blossom Finance in 2014 which aims to increase the availability and inclusivity of Islamic microfinance. Matthew's background includes engineering and product management experience in the payment card, money remittance, mobile payments, and mobile banking sectors at venture capital funded, international tech startups Xoom, Boku, and Monitise. He has advised technology startups on various topics including blockchain, payment technology, product management, and sharia finance. Matthew has spoken to various international audiences on the topics of crowdfunding, microfinance, and blockchain at events in the United States, Bahrain, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He's also an early advocate for proof-of-ownership and distributed ledger technology like Bitcoin; in 2013, he launched his first cryptocurrency business allowing instant purchase of Bitcoin from 27 countries using just a mobile phone. Matthew has studied 8 languages and speaks Indonesian, Farsi, and French at an intermediate level in addition to his native English. Matthew embraced Islam in 2010 and lives in Jakarta, Indonesia with his wife and son.

Dr Aishath Muneeza is Associate Professor at INCEIF and is one of the key founder of Islamic finance in Maldives. She is the first female Deputy Minister of Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the first chairperson of the Hajj Pilgrimage Fund of Maldives. Currently, she is the chairperson of Maldives Centre for Islamic Finance. She has published books and numerousarticles on Islamic Finance and her research areas include legal studies & corporate governance applicable to Islamic Finance. She structured the first corporate sukuk, sovereign private sukuk and Islamic Treasury instruments for the government of Maldives and she has played the key role in offering of Islamic finance products by more than eleven institutions. She also designed the first Islamic microfinance scheme offered in Maldives.  Dr. Muneeza sits in Shariah advisory committees of financial institutions offering Islamic financial services such as Islamic hire purchase and takaful. She also holds the position of chairperson of three different in-house Shariah committees. She is the chairperson of Shariah Advisory Council of CMDA, the capital market regulatory authority of Maldives since 2011. She  is the only registered Shariah Adviser for structuring capital market instruments in Maldives and she is a registered Shariah Advisor at the Securities Commission of Malaysia. The Islamic capital market framework of Maldives was designed by her. She has won numerous national and international awards for her service in Islamic finance industry including the Rehendhi award, the highest award conferred to women by the government of Maldives. She is also a role model and a mentor for females who aspire to build their careers in Islamic finance industry and is the Vice President of Women on Boards, an NGO advocating women representation on boards of companies. She is an invited speaker in Islamic finance conferences and events held in different parts of the world. She is listed in 2017 as number seven among the 50 Influential Women in Business and Finance by ISFIRE which is an official publication of Islamic Bankers Association based in London and she is among the most influential 500 in Islamic Economy. She is a member of the Association of Shariah Advisors in Islamic Finance Malaysia (ASAS), Malaysia.

For one RFI trustee who recently retired from running an Islamic finance university, the way forward for Islamic finance has become clearer as he has had more time to think.  Daud Vicary Abdullah, former president & CEO of INCEIF, the Global University on Islamic Finance, spoke to RFI Foundation CEO Blake Goud for our podcast following a presentation at the Securities Commission & Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) roundtable.    Daud Abdullah’s conversation — which builds upon the many topics he has raised in articles for the RFI Foundation newsletter — sparked a bigger conversation on how Islamic finance can be truer to its broader objectives while navigating a world where turning principles into action can be difficult.

In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Sherin Kunhibava, a Senior Lecturer at the Univerity Malaya Law faculty who had her research on how Malaysia’s Islamic banks approach environmental impact recently published in the Arab Law Quarterly. Dr. Sherin’s expertise is in commercial law and Islamic finance law and she has worked both as an academic and also has worked in banking and elsewhere in the financial industry.  Her research focuses on whether environmental impact is important for a bank’s identity as a Shari’ah compliant institution, how it should implement this in its operations and who should oversee whether its actions go far enough to meet its obligations for Shari’ah compliance.  Currently most Islamic banks don’t address environmental issues as a part of their Shari’ah governance process so her research includes some recommendations for how Islamic banks could start to address this issue. Full citation: Sherin Kunhibava, Sarah Tan Yen Linga and Md Khalil Ruslan. "Sustainable Financing and Enhancing the Role of Islamic Banks in Malaysia," 32 (2018) 129-157.

In this podcast, we talk to Jessica Robinson, Founder & CEO of Moxie Future, who was previously Head of Asia for the UN supported Principles for Responsible Investment.  Moxie Future is the world’s first insights, education and community platform empowering women as responsible and impact investors.  Moxie Future has a report out now that is designed to address a gap in the data relating to what women investors are looking for.  To start filling this gap, Moxie Future commissioned a survey of women across five markets, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and China.  The results point to an huge opportunity for the financial sector to increase its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, and improve its engagement with women, both employees and clients.

In this podcast, we talk to Justin Sykes, Managing Director of Innovest Advisory, a boutique advisory firm focused on the social enterprise sector. Innovest works to bring in private investors seeking both financial returns and a clear and measurable social impact. This positive impact comes through investing in social businesses in some of the most challenging parts of the world using market-based approaches.   One of these social enterprises is Kaah International Microfinance Service (KIMS), which delivers Shariah-compliant microfinance across urban areas in Somalia. KIMS, which was recently awarded the Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge & Award (EFICA) by Thomson Reuters and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.  KIMS has grown rapidly from its first branch in Somaliland and  now covers most of the country, with 11 branches in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central with a cumulative loan portfolio of $8 million that has supported 8,500 micro and small businesses since its launch in 2014.

In order to promote financial inclusion, sometimes it is necessary to start with a non-financial activity to reach people who are not used to engaging with the financial sector.  In this podcast, we talk to Morrad Irsane, Co-Founder of Melltoo about their peer-to-peer marketplace, no-meetup classifieds, based in the United Arab Emirates.  Melltoo acts as the trusted intermediary between buyers and sellers of secondhand goods, providing a service that combines delivery, payment, and escrow for transactions and has recently increased the role it can play in bringing greater financial inclusion to its largely unbanked customer base.  

In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Jemilah Mahmood who began her career as an obstetrician and gynaecologist before founding an international humanitarian relief organization in Malaysia.  She shared wth us some examples of both the need and the opportunity for Islamic finance to bring a unique approach to humanitarian funding. In addition, we welcome her as a member of the RFI Foundation Board of Trustees where she serves in a personal capacity. 

In this podcast, we talk to Umar Munshi, Founder of Ethis Ventures, a pioneering group of ethical and Islamic crowdfunding companies that fund government-backed Social Housing development projects in Indonesia. Ethis’ community has crowd-invested in projects to build 5,000 affordable houses in Indonesia since 2015.

Interview with Will Oulton, the Global Head of Responsible Investment at UK-based First State Investments. [more]

Naureen Hyat, Business Head at Tez Financial Services, describes the upcoming launch of a pilot version of the company’s nano-loans FinTech product.  Hyat, whose company won the Support Disruption for Good Challenge at the RFI Summit in Zurich in May, said the pilot would start in selected locations within Pakistan before a final rollout across the entire country.