BANKING - Indonesia cbank to ease approval of sharia products

Indonesia's central bank is aiming to simplify the approval process for Islamic banking products to accelerate the development of the country's Islamic finance industry, a central banker said on Tuesday.
Bank Indonesia, sharia board Majelis Ulama Indonesia and the Indonesian Accountants Association has established a working group whose job will be to review new Islamic banking products, said sharia director Mulya Siregar.


Currently, the 11 sharia banks in Southeast Asia's largest economy have to get their products approved by the sharia board and then Bank Indonesia before they can be sold.

Siregar said the working group was currently assessing which product types could be sold by sharia banks in complying with existing Islamic laws.

"With this, (the process) will be more efficient. If the product types are already approved, banks can sell them without having to get approval again," he said.

Indonesia expects its sharia banking assets to reach 130 trillion rupiah by the end of 2011, from an estimated 90-92 trillion rupiah in 2010, according to the central bank. They grew by an average 33 percent in the last five years. (Reporting by Fathiya Dahrul; Writing by Aditya Suharmoko; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

Source :  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL3E7C40LM20110104 - Jan 4, 2011