IFN UK Forum 2023 - Welcome Address

In this IFN Podcast episode, Munirah Khairuddin, the country head and CEO of Principal Asset Management Malaysia speaks to Nessreen Tamano of IFN about the rising popularity and impact of digital investing, especially in the context of Shariah compliant finance, in Malaysia and around the world.

Estate planning is a major challenge in Malaysia, with the upper bound of frozen assets estimated at RM90 billion (US$19.36 billion). In this episode of the podcast, Marlena Kareem, the editor of ISFI, speaks to Ariffin Sabirin, the founder of Wasiyyah Shoppe, and Khairul Nisa Ismail, CEO of Sedania As Salam Capital, about how they are collaborating to address the Muslim estate planning challenge with the Hibah instrument. 

The mainstreaming of digital lending has overhauled the risk landscape for banks and financial institutions. How should the finance industry adapt? In this episode, Vineeta Tan speaks to Guru Raghavendran, the senior vice-president of banking practice at Azentio Software, to explore this topic.

Carbon credits are positioned as a potential avenue to alleviate some of the global climate pressures emanating from carbon emissions. But they are not without critics. Are they a viable asset class and how can we best optimize carbon credits and offsets? My name is Vineeta Tan, the managing editor of IFN. To understand this, in this episode, Vineeta Tan speaks to Professor Lisa Wilson, the managing director of XTCC, a Shariah compliant investment platform for carbon credits; and Dr Scott Levy, the managing director of Al Waseelah and founder of XTCC. 

Air Selangor issued its largest SRI Sukuk to date in October 2023. In this episode, Marlena Kereem, the editor of Islamic Sustainable Finance and Investment, sits down with Kevin Lee Shih-Min, the head of finance and strategy at Air Selangor, to talk about this landmark issuance and its SRI Sukuk strategy moving forward. 

There is a noticeable shift from traditional bank financing toward alternative financing across multiple asset classes in the GCC and beyond, which is resulting in the rise of instruments such as venture debt funds. In this episode, brought to you by King and Spalding, Asal Saghari and Mike Rainey explore this trend, bringing us expert insights and analyses to help us understand this shift and how it impacts the financing landscape. Nathan Kwon joins as a special guest. 

There are areas of opportunities in the Islamic private equity and venture capital space, particularly in the GCC and Southeast Asian regions, where Lim Say Cheong, the CEO of Saudi Venture Capital Investment Company, has focused on in the last decade. He shares his insights with IFN in this episode with Nessreen Tamano.

reNIKOLA Solar II issued the world's first Climate Bonds Initiative-certified Sukuk in September this year. Marlena Kareem, the editor of ISFI, speaks to Khong Ho Ming, the executive director and COO of reNIKOLA, about this landmark issuance.

The Islamic insurtech sector in Malaysia is still relatively small, but CEO of Ouch!, Shazy Noorazman, believes that more players will emerge as the digital Takaful opportunity is hard to ignore. Shazy discusses the prospects and pain points of the industry in this episode with Vineeta Tan. 

Ratings play a significant role in the voluntary carbon market space.  Marlena Kareem, the editor of ISFI, speaks to Ronan Carr, the chief research officer at BeZero Carbon, about the role of ratings in the carbon market, its recent issuance of the world’s first pre-issuance rating for a carbon project as well as the mispricing of carbon credits.