Islamic Finance

Made Relevant To You

Islamic Banking and Finance in Singapore or rather Asia has taken the spotlight in the recent past. The unprecedented global financial crisis has created enough compelling reasons for the conventional financial markets looking to raise new liquidity or capital in a challenging environment, from the Middle-East and Gulf Region. Muslim investors are also actively looking for Shari’ah (also spelt as Sharia, Shariah or Syariah) principled investments. This climate presents an immense opportunity for the proponents of Islamic financial markets to help the conventional financial market players understand and appreciate the merits, benefits and salient features of the Shari’ah compliant products

BUT WHAT OR WHY ISLAMIC FINANCE OR ISLAMIC BANKING?

Apart from reasons stated above, there are only a small sector such as conventional financial products e.g. alcoholic, casino, gaming, conventional finance sectors that are prohibited in Islamic Finance. Short-selling or convoluted structured products that are ambiguous or disadvantages any parties to the contract are also not allowed.

As global markets open up many Central Banks are already tweaking their financial regulation to facilitate and accommodate Islamic Finance, the climate is very conducive for conventional markets to participate and benefit from the growing sector.

If you intend to structure a Shari’ah compliant equity funds, bond like structure (known as Sukuk or Sukuks), structured products or even hedge funds, you can consider Islamic Finance as an option to offer such products and benefit from the best of both worlds. Is is also a common misnomer that one needs to know the Arabic language for you to benefit from Islamic Finance.

Five Pillars is a Singapore based advisory and consultancy firm that specialises in Islamic Banking and Finance, education, training and structuring products that are Shari’ah (also spelt as Sharia, Shariah or Syariah) compliant. Five Pillars is focused on delivering Shari’ah based solutions to conventional financial institutions like banks, international investment funds, insurance companies, private equity (PE) and hedge funds on the demand side as well as companies wanting to access funds from Shari’ah investors on the supply side. We also help investment managers identify companies that are Shari’ah compliant for investment purposes. Five Pillars Pte Ltd has a renowned and reputable team of Shariah scholars, that provides you with a menu of comprehensive solutions to benefit from the Islamic Finance world.

Recent notable milestones include having advised in the world’s largest Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) which also happens to be Singapore’s (SGX) first main board listed Shari’ah Compliant entity. Five Pillars also provided advisory services to Singapore’s First Shari’ah Compliant Data Property Fund namely Securus Data Property Fund.

Five Pillars is focused on providing innovative solutions to create greater opportunity for Middle-East, Gulf and Muslim investors to participate and profit from this fast growing sector.

Raja Mohamad or Raj as he is commonly known has been in the financial industry for over 19 years. Having worked in the risk management and private banking it provided him an invaluable opportunity to understand the workings of the conventional financial markets. Raja also spent time time in Europe and has travelled extensively to Asia and Middle-East. The many years in financial industry means, including the 2008, he has seen some four financial crisis since the 1995 Barings Bank fall-out.

Following the banking experiences he went on to work with Bloomberg Financial Data in management capacity covering businesses in most of Asia. His introduction to Islamic Finance paved way to offer Islamic Finance advisory and consultancy services from Singapore.

Raja is a regular speaker in Islamic Finance conferences globally and is also a resource person, often appearing in CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg and Channel News Asia commenting on Islamic Finance.

He works directly with Global leaders in Islamic Finance such as Dr. Mohamed Ali Elgari.

He also has lectured and conducted workshops at National University of Singapore (Dept of Real Estate), Singapore Management University and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore.

Raja is committed to demystify Islamic Finance and make it simple to encourage more participation by the conventional market experts. His positioning of Islamic Finance as an enabler of businesses is appreciated by most of his clients.

Services

Five Pillars offers a unique combination of Shari’ah compliant services that explore investment opportunities suitable to Islamic principles and way of life. In addition, we are organisers of significant Islamic related financial events and provide banking and investment training.

SHARI’AH STOCK SCREENING

LONG ONLY EQUITY FUND

STRUCTURED PRODUCTS

PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENTS

SUKUKS (BONDS)

COURSES IN ISLAMIC FINANCE

MANAGED ACCOUNT ADVISORY

WILL WRITING (FARA’ID)

INITIAL COIN OFFERING SHARI'AH COMPLIANCE ANALYSIS

SHARI'AH COMPLIANCE ENDORSEMENT FOR CRYPTOCURRENCIES