Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia rules e-money permissible

28 May 2020

The Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia (“BNM”) at its 201st meeting and 26th special meeting on 29 January and 30 January 2020 made a ruling that electronic money (“e-money”) is a permissible payment instrument under Shariah, provided that the e-money is structured based on appropriate Shariah contract(s) to preserve the rights and obligations of the contracting parties. This ruling came into effect on 19 May 2020 and is applicable to the following:

  • approved issuers of Shariah compliant e-money under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013; and
  • approved issuers of e-money under the Financial Services Act 2013 (“FSA”) approved under section 15(1)(e) of the FSA to issue Shariah compliant e-money.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the BNM website www.bnm.gov.my:

 

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