It is with great pleasure we bring you the second edition of the IFN Financial Innovation Report, a seminal publication focusing on key Islamic fintech topics. This report discusses, among others, the findings of a market survey of 200 industry practitioners which allowed us to understand the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses and expansion strategies. We also gained insights into how the market has matured, identified key growth areas, narrowed down the biggest challenges behind sector advancements and gathered feedback and recommendations for progress.
Based on these findings as well as our list of curated sector articles contributed by leading market experts, we see how agile Islamic fintech start-ups have navigated this new normal world, leveraged on new opportunities to close market gaps and gained more international recognition which have translated into more investments into the sector.
Several verticals in particular have shown wonderful promising growth including alternative finance and digital banking, and others such as blockchain, robo-advisory as well as peer-to-peer finance and crowdfunding continue to grow from strength to strength. Therefore, despite it being a difficult two years, these developments are painting a favorable outlook for Shariah fintech and we are cautiously optimistic about what the future holds for the industry as it gains more mainstream recognition and secures more regulatory and financial support from stakeholders.
We hope the IFN Financial Innovation Report 2021 would spark discussions and interest in this burgeoning market and we look forward to more of what the sector has to offer.
Most sincerely,
Vineeta Tan
Managing Editor