Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2019
Islamic banking is the conduct of banking according to Shariah or Islamiclaw. Statistically Islamic banking has had phenomenal growth, according tothe Asian Banker Research Group, the world's 100 largest Islamic banks haveset an annual asset growth rate of 26.7% and the global Islamic financeindustry is experiencing an average growth of 15-20% annually. Recently thePrime Minister of Malaysia commented that Malaysia has been maintaining itsleadership in Islamic banking and finance for over three decades. As anInternational leader in Islamic banking, it would be interesting to explorethe development of Islamic banking in Malaysia. This will be the objectiveof this paper. This paper will focus on the historical development ofIslamic banking in Malaysia, from the creation of the Haj Pilgrim's FundBoard in the 1960s to the current Islamic banking scene of 17 local Islamicbanks and five International Islamic banks in operation. This paper willalso explore the unique regulatory and governance framework of Islamicbanking in Malaysia, by touching on the Islamic banking Act 1983, theCentral Bank of Malaysia Act 2009, the Banking and Financial InstitutionsAct 1989 and the Shariah Governance Framework introduced in 2011 by theCentral Bank of Malaysia. This paper will also briefly introduce how Islamicbanking works.