‘Amanah KiwiSaver Plan’—the first Shari’ah compliant KiwiSaver scheme—was launched by ‘Amanah Ethical’ on January 31, 2015 in Auckland.
“We recognised that there is a huge market for an Islamic Financial Institution that looks after the financial needs of the Muslim community based in New Zealand, such as Shari‘ah compliant banking system, buying houses, KiwiSaver and other investment opportunities,” says Barrister Brian Henry, Managing Director of Amanah Ethical.
Amanah Ethical currently has two investment products available to members of the public—Amanah New Zealand Unit Trust and Amanah KiwiSaver Plan, which provides incentives to save for retirement.
To set up a financial institution that can run properly fulfilling the needs of the community, there had to be a sound cash flow prepared and proper business structure made so that it does not become vulnerable to the feeble market conditions.
The trust only invests in the stock of up to 50 corporations listed on NYSE, NYSE MKT or main board NASDAQ in US dollars. All the investments made comply with Shari‘ah Law as defined by AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing organisation for Financial Institutions).
Amanah strictly does not invest in avenues that are contrary to the Shari‘ah Law i.e. interest producing products, derivatives, corporations involved in alcohol businesses, pork business, gambling, night club activities, and pornography, corporations involved in producing tools of war, tobacco products and stem cell research or products. If the Trust suspects the investment is non compliant, it immediately sells the investment and investigates the issue.
A lot of research was carried out to frame a model that complies with the rules in the books of Islam.
“We spent 12 months convincing FIANZ’s Ulema Committee that Amanah KiwiSaver is a strict interpretation of Shari‘ah Law because they are the scholars who make the rulings and know better as in what is allowed in Islam. The Ulema Committee approved us as strictly Shari‘ah compliant on November 20, 2014,” added Mr Brian Henry.
Sheikh Mohammad Amir, the Head of Ulema Committee; Dr Ahmed Rufai , the Head of Shari‘ah to the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) in Bahrain and Dr Faruk Balli, Associate Professor at Massey University School of Economics and Finance, shortly came onboard as members of the Amanah New Zealand Islamic Advisory Board.
Families or individuals who are searching for investment opportunities that are Shari’ah compliant can now invest into Amanah KiwiSaver that will, after a certain period of time, accumulate and further be invested in Halal trades.
There are many Muslim families and individuals who are looking for such avenues for investments, which are permissible by Islamic Laws. Indian Weekender, in its May 1st, 2015 issue, covered a story of a lady who was looking for home loans from banks without interest since usury is forbidden in Islam.
More information on Amanah Ethical can be found on www.amanahnz.com.