Fresh out of the Bahrain regulatory sandbox and raring to be licensed, fintech Inablr Middle East is to offer zero-fee fractionalized Sukuk using its blockchain-based trading platform — aiming to start around the end of 2024.
Founder Anver Jalaldeen told IFN Investor that Inablr had been ready with this offering since 2021 but could not proceed because there were no regulations in place then for such a service to be supervised or monitored. “That’s why we accepted the invitation to be within the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) sandbox, it lets them better understand what we could do.”
Anver said the CBB agreed Sukuk are a low-risk Shariah compliant investment but priced too high for retail investors. Seeing how fractionalizing makes Sukuk more accessible and gaining insight into how Inablr’s solution works, the CBB agreed to let the fintech leave the sandbox after three years.
Aiming to offer units starting from US$100 each, Anver explained the underlying Sukuk are held in a certified bank deposit and then fractionalized using Tezos blockchain technology. Each unit is priced as a faction of the mother Sukuk but offered at a slight premium to offset costs and avoid fees. “We will prioritize the inclusion of Sukuk products on our platform. Sukuk, as Islamic bonds structured to comply with Shariah principles, represent an important avenue for investors seeking ethical and compliant investment opportunities.”
But due to the underlying technology, Anver said the Inablr platform will be “asset-agnostic as we aim to serve a wide range of investors”.
Anver said the next phase for Inablr involves obtaining a license to launch the platform to the mass market, a process that is currently underway, with plans to expand to other markets in the Gulf and the wider Middle East in the coming six to nine months.
