The points highlighted by Mufti Ehsan Waquar are excellent and represents the situation on ground in many other markets.
Here’s a summary of the key points he made (the interview is in Urdu and English):
1. Scarcity of good talent i.e. Human Resource.
2. Current knowledgeable (i.e. understanding the essence of Islamic finance) talent are in mid management today and will only come into decision-making positions within next 5-6 years.
3.Lack of commitment from financial companies/institutions: the term used by Mufti Ehsan is “economic migrant” i.e. wherever the opportunity lies to make profit the institution is moving in that direction.
With regards to this, the IF industry growth will bring about such migrancy to remain within the overall Halal & IF industry, again within next 5-6 years.
4. Need for product training: specially to front end, retail customer facing staff so that there is awareness, understanding (among the staff) and as a result the customer can be educated properly.
5.Such training should be tied back to the individual staff’s appraisal in order for it to be taken seriously and implemented and for the organisation to benefit from it.
6. More education oriented communication with retail customer, on Islamic finance and Islamic banking, is necessary to clearly highlight and make sure comprehension of individual product benefits.
The interview ( in 3 parts)can be viewed here:
Joy's Corner 