Say “fintech city” … and immediately Silicon Valley, London, Singapore or Bengaluru might pop to mind. How about Melbourne?
No? Then consider this: Australia, a market of a million affluent Muslims, had virtually non-existent or prohibitively expensive Shariah compliant financial solutions just a few years back.
That was before Hejaz Group stepped in to fill the void in Melbourne, fundamentally changing the way Australian Muslims engage with Islamic finance and investments.
We did it the way the world knows today – with fintech.
And we knew why we were doing it. Victoria, the home of Hejaz in Melbourne, had a significant and sophisticated financial services sector that already provided a strong foundation for fintech innovation. From tech talent to a start-up ecosystem, government or regulatory support, it was all there.
Historically, Shariah compliance came with a cost as well as complexity. The emphasis on real economic activity and avoidance of Riba, Gharar and Maysir required specific transactional structures like Murabahah for financing or Mudarabah for investments. Their integration with traditional banking was also cumbersome.
This digital era transcended such limitations, offering a full suite of transactional capabilities for Shariah banking including payments, money transfers and a visa debit card.
The cornerstone of Hejaz’s Australian Shariah revolution is its Halal FinTech app.
The onboarding process for this app is entirely digital, leveraging instantaneous biometric verification, anti-money laundering and know your customer protocols.
This technological leap effectively eliminates the previous ‘laborious process’ of physical paperwork, lengthy waiting lists and office visits, placing Shariah compliant finance literally ‘at the click of a button’ in the palm of a user’s hand.
Beyond day-to-day transactions, the Halal FinTech app integrates investment opportunities, providing access to Hejaz’s Australian-listed Shariah compliant ETFs across various asset classes like equities, property and Sukuk.
A notable innovation is ‘Compass’, a robo-advice AI tool designed to guide first-time investors through the complexities of Shariah compliant investments. This user-centric design empowers both novice and seasoned investors, opening up access to what was once the domain of a select few.
In home financing, we facilitate an auto finance process that’s digital, Murabahah-based and will soon extend to Ijarah-based home financing. The upshot for the mortgage customer is a crunch of the months-long ordeal in some traditional Islamic finance offerings.
By digitizing these processes, we have shown that adherence to Shariah principles can coexist with efficiency and competitive pricing.
By making Shariah compliant finance available to both ‘prince and pauper’, Hejaz has pioneered a new era of financial inclusion and democratization.
Melbourne for your start-up, anyone?
Muzzammil Dhedhy is co-founder and executive director of Hejaz Group, Australia
