Building on our strengths, experience and achievements, the Malaysian takaful industry with the highest number of takaful and retakaful operators, is well-positioned to seize the enormous opportunity to export takaful benefits to the estimated 1.5 billion Muslims around the world whom are currently underserved by the insurance industry. This presents a huge window of opportunity for our takaful operators to accelerate their regional and global orientation and move up the global value chains. It is therefore important for strategic international partners such as ING to explore all possible avenues to elevate the business potential of takaful internationally. A critical factor that will determine the success in taking the industry to the next level of development is the existence of players with the right quality and calibre, as well their readiness in terms of capacity and capability to formulate and execute successful strategies in response to new market opportunities. In this rapidly evolving environment, responsiveness to consumer needs is a crucial test that defines success. The takaful industry in Malaysia has never been about Shariah conformity being its only value proposition. With consumers becoming increasingly discerning and the market being more competitive, factors such as innovative product design, price competitiveness, transparency and service quality have all been important determinants in winning and securing customer loyalty. The ability of takaful operators to deliver such value propositions has been, and will continue to be, amongst the key success factors to successfully position takaful in Malaysia to appeal to both muslim and non-muslims, whether corporates or individuals.

And recognising we are secular, not religious, regulators, who cannot opine on Shari’ah compliance,9 and equally cannot disapply regulations either.10 To deepen our international engagement further, the Bank of England joined the Islamic Finance Stability Board as an Associate Member in 2015.11 That approach has paid off. Today, the UK is home to four exclusively Islamic banks with assets of over £ more than a dozen conventional banks offering Shari’ah compliant services, a host of investment firms, and a thriving advisory sector. Islamic finance and Covid Of course there have been many challenges over the years – but none perhaps quite as serious as the Covid pandemic. The human cost has been enormous – as has the economic impact,  7  https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/speech/2003/edward-george-islamic-home-financeseminar.pdf?la=en&hash=D2C5BC0A2C057ACCD9A8F40F74A7EBB742FE6C58. 8 https://www.isfin.net/sites/isfin.com/files/islamic_finance_in_the_uk.pdf. 9 This point was made in the judges’ commentary to the 2003/2004 court cases of Beximco and others vs Shamil Bank of Bahrain: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2004/19.html. 10 So, for example, the basis of any assertion that a product is Shari’ah compliant must be communicated to the customer, as must all decision-relevant information, in a way that is clear, fair, and not misleading. 11 https://www.ifsb.org/membership_org.php?org=1. 5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  5  particularly in parts of the Muslim world. I know that some worry that Covid might slow the pace of growth in Islamic finance, as economic activity declines, and market participants revert to more conventional tools to meet the daunting financing needs of the crisis.