Advertisement

KUALA LUMPUR: Funding Societies, which claims to be the largest SME digital financing platform in Southeast Asia, has launched a suite of Shariah-compliant financing solutions for underserved Malaysian micro, small and medium enterprises.

The solutions include business term financing-i, micro financing-i and invoice financing-i.

Funding Societies Malaysia country head of funding Chai Kien Poon said the company had been monitoring and evaluating market response and demand for Islamic finance, as well as the need for Shariah-compliant funding among Muslim entrepreneurs.

"Islamic finance is also appealing to non-Muslims given its emphasis on fairness and transparency in fees and charges.

"Besides that, the introduction of our Islamic Financing aligns with Malaysia's aspirations to be the leader in Islamic finance as well as focus on the Islamic digital economy and FinTech," Chai said at the launch here today.

Funding Societies group chief operating officer Wong Kah Meng said the SME digital platform played an important role to close the RM90 billion SME financing gap in Malaysia.

The company said it had developed Shariah-compliant investment products allowing investors to diversify their investments while joining the company to support a critical segment of Malaysia's economy.

"We have seen very encouraging demand from investors from retail, high net worth individuals and institutions and we look forward to working with financial institutions to offer Shariah-compliant investments to their customers," Chai said.

After their soft launch in May 2022, the Shariah-compliant financing propositions have seen encouraging take-up from SMEs.

Chai said the company was looking to have 50 per cent of disbursement coming from the Shariah-compliant solutions by 2025.

Funding Societies has been operating in Malaysia since 2016, providing financing needs to SMEs here.

As of 2022, the company disbursed more than RM2 billion in finance through its FinTech platform, and over RM13.74 billion had been disbursed through more than five million transactions.

Source: https://www.nst.com.my/business/2023/05/914888/funding-societies-unveils-shariah-compliant-financing-solutions-underserved