78 / 260
76
Brunei also managed to remain in the top 10
position in the Awareness indicator. Brunei rose
from third to second place for Seminars, with the
country ranking in the top five nations for Islamic
Finance Events in 2018.
The report indicates Brunei as one of the
countries with a strong regulatory landscape.
Brunei ranked top five under the Governance
indicator, rising from seventh to third under the
Corporate Governance sub-indicator.
In terms of asset growth, the report indicates
Brunei in the top 10 positions in Takaful assets.
Brunei is one of the top three countries with the
fastest growing markets in Takaful assets, with
an increase from BND491.8 million in 2017 to
BND546.1 million in 2018.
The country’s Islamic banking assets also
recorded a slight increase from BND11.2 billion
in 2017 to BND11.7 billion in 2018, accounting
for about 90 per cent of the total Islamic finance
market share of assets. Additionally, net asset
value of Islamic funds increased from BND95.5
million in 2017 to BND102.1 million in 2018.
Brunei continues to move towards achieving
Islamic finance excellence by creating a
progressive Islamic finance ecosystem on par
with international best practices and in line with
the local market needs.
AMBD Islamic Bills Programme
In 2017, AMBD embarked on the establishment
of the Domestic Money Market Project consisting
of three milestones.
Under the first deliverable, AMBD issued a
notice to introduce an averaging mechanism to
the Minimum Cash Balance (MCB) requirement
which provided banks with greater flexibility in
their daily liquidity management, effective from
December 1, 2017.
In 2018, AMBD introduced the Syariah-compliant
and conventional overnight standing facilities.
The service aims to facilitate the smooth
functioning of the financial system through
the lending/funding facilities and deposit/
acceptance facilities.
The introduction of these facilities also created
a level playing field for both Islamic and
conventional banks in Brunei Darussalam and
the tenor for the facilities are on an overnight
basis, offered to licensed banks in the country.
The
AMBD Islamic Bills Programme is the third
and final deliverable under AMBD’s Domestic
Money Market Project.
A signing ceremony was held on October 13,
2020 for the AMBD Islamic Bills Programme with
banks in Brunei.
The programme aims to support liquidity
management for banks in Brunei. It also aims
to expand the list of available money market
instruments for AMBD and the domestic
financial sector.
The inaugural AMBD Islamic Bills Programme
is based on the Syariah concept of Wakalah bil
Ujrah. It is the first Syariah structure of its kind to
be used for Sukuk issuance in Brunei.
During the signing ceremony, it was shared that
the introduction of AMBD Islamic Bills will be
part of the short-term benchmark yield curve,
and that it is hoped to be able to facilitate the
development of other financial instruments in
Brunei, particularly Syariah-compliant ones.