By: Abdel Aziz Dimapunong
In the Philippines, we are comfortable to say that we are among the founders of Islamic banking. The late Senator Mamintal A. Tamano started to conceptualize a Muslim bank in the Philippines as early as 1971. That was the time Islamic banking was in its infancy stage. Although some scholars claimed that Islamic banking started in the late 1950s, others insisted that it actually goes back to the sixties. But it is quite popular to claim that it was only in 1972 that stable Islamic banks were established in Egypt. They were the Nasser Social Bank of Egypt and the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt.
As a legislator, Senator Mamintal Tamano intended to sponsor a bill for the passage of a charter of what he initially called as the Philippine Muslim Bank (PMB). I was then a working student, and I was a registered employee of the Senate under the Office of Senator Tamano, then chairman of the Senate Committee on Banks and Currencies. And I was privileged to have typewritten Tamano’s drafted bill for the charter of PMB. This draft did not materialize into a law because just as soon as the proposed charter was drafted, martial law in the Philippines was declared by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. The entire Congress (includes the Senate) of the Philippines was abolished.
In later part of 1972, Senator (this time already ex-Senator) Tamano made some revisions to the proposed charter. The name was changed from Philippine Muslim Bank to Philippine Amanah Bank. The draft format was changed into a presidential decree format without a trace to Tamano. The Senator asked me to deliver the draft to a member of the Marcos Cabinet who was among his close friends. I delivered the final draft to Tamano’s friend in the Palace. The following year it became the Presidential Decree No. 264, otherwise known as the Charter of the Philippine Amanah Bank.
The early seventies was the age of the oil phenomenon. Enthusiasm on Islamic banking shifted from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. The pioneering Islamic banker was HRH Prince Mohammed al Faisal Al Saud. To his credit, the Islamic Development Bank of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was established. He was also the founder of the Faisal chain of Islamic banks and financial institutions. Among these were: the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, Faisal Islamic Bank of Sudan, Faisal Islamic Bank of Kibris, Masraf Faisal Al Islami Bahrain, Masraf Faisal Al Islami Niger, Masraf Faisal de Guinee, Fasraf Faisal de Senegal, Islamic Finance House, Faisal Finance Institution (Istanbul), and the Dar Al Maal Al Islami in the Bahamas. Another Islamic banker from Saudi Arabia was Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamil, a prominent businessman, and founder of the Al Baraka Group of companies. He was very closely related to Prince Faisal Al Saud. Sheikh Kamil was also a founder of a chain of Islamic financial institution. Among them were: the Al Baraka Al Sudani, Al Baraka Bank Bahrain, Al Baraka Turkish Finance House in Istanbul, Al Baraka Islamic Bank Mauritania, Al Baraka Investment Company in London, Al Baraka Finance House in London, Al Baraka International in London, and Al Baraka Banking Corporation in Houston, Texas.
Our Philippine Amanah Bank was followed in 1975 by the first Islamic bank in the Middle East which was chartered in the United Arab Emirates. That was the Dubai Islamic Bank.
In the 1970s, there was no clear legal definition of what Islamic banking means. At least, this was the case in the Philippines. Sharia’ counsels were not popular then. In the Philippines, Islamic banking was not even mentioned in the General Banking Law or the Central Bank Act. There was no reference to Islamic banking. There were no rules and no regulation specific for Islamic banking. People simply thought that by being called Amanah bank, Al Amanah Bank, or any Arabic named bank with Moslem officers and holding branches in predominantly Muslim areas, such a bank could already be branded as an Islamic Bank.
In the 1980s, the Ulama counsels (i.e., the Islamic scholars) were already complaining about misleading the general public, making them believe that the Amanah Bank was Islamic Bank. They insisted that charging interest is violative of Islamic tenets. So, in 1986 the Majlis Da’wah Philippine Al Islami was formally organized by then Mohammad Mauyag Tamano, then Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. One of the objectives of this organization was to clamor for the establishment of a truly Islamic Bank in the Philippines. That means banking sans interest rates. This organized move was partly inspired by Malaysia’s successful passage in 1983 of its Islamic Bank Act 1983, and by the eventual establishment of the Bank Islamic Malaysia Bhd on July of that year. This bank was designed to cater for the banking of Malaysia’s predominantly Muslim population who perceive the western banking to be inappropriate for their needs as Muslims.
By 1987, there were already thirty-three Islamic banks in the Islamic countries and nine others in the western world. In 1988, the charter of the Al Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines was also drafted. By this time, the Philippine Amanah Bank was already perceived to be a total failure. Actually, it was already bankrupt.
To abolish and replace the PAB with a Sharia’ compliant bank, a special law, Republic Act No. 6848 was enacted in 1989. In the formulation of this law, the international Muslim bankers were consulted. Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef, then Secretary General of the World Muslim League, was among those consulted. Prominent Muslim bankers like Shiek Hassan Kamel and the Al Baraka Group had also been asked for advice.
The enactment of RA 6848, the charter of the Al Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines was a very important development in the area of international banking. In the years to follow, the Islamic Bank charter was believed to be a model legal framework for Islamic banking and finance that could be adopted by other countries. This charter is applicable to any country whether it belongs to the World of Muslims or to the Western World.
Today, the principles of Islamic banking now reverberate not only in the global banking industry but also in many sectors of the business world and some academies of higher learning. The ethical standards of review that are now being introduced by the so called Sharia’ advisory counsels, such as the one provided in the Islamic Bank charter, is now being adopted by western business entities.
The Sharia’ advisory boards not only consider the conventional project viability and feasibility – but they also look beyond the traditional way. This is the “Sharia’” standard which could include appropriateness, fairness, trust, transparency, the ethical nature of transactions, as well as social responsibility, especially to the poor, the wayfarer, those afflicted with illness, victims of calamities such as the “Tsunami”, and all those in need. That is why the charter provides for “zakat” or tithe. It also provides for “Qard Al Hassan” which means benevolent loans. A “zakat” is paid by every God-fearing believer for the benefit of the poor and the needy. A benevolent loan (qard al Hassan) does not bear interest and repayment may not be expected. It is provided as a loan in much the same manner as a developed country providing development assistance to an underdeveloped country. It is being practiced by the government of the United States of America through the USAID. It is also being done by the government of Japan through JICA. In the Philippines, it is being done by the government of Australia through its Direct Aid Program (DAP). These foreign nations are providing benevolent loans and financial assistance without them knowing that these loans are in the form of “qard al Hassan”. If these benevolent loans are done with intent to be in accordance with “Sura Tagabon” (a chapter in the Holy Qur’an), then it qualifies as “qard al Hassan”.
All business dealings with Islamic banking, finance, trade, commerce, and, in fact all about Islamic economics, can be found in a common reference of all Muslims of the World today and tomorrow. This is the standard under Sharia’. It is common to all Muslims around the World. It is a standard that will never change for all time. That is a fact about Sharia. Its foundation, the Holy Qur’an will never change. The Hadith likewise will never change. Any deviation from the standard that was set by the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith is called “bida’a” and it will be rejected by any real Sharia’ counsel. Said “Bida’a“or deviation from standard will be returned to innovators. There is no compromise. For instance, interest charges maybe disguised as bank charges. This kind of deviation will not be honored by any real Sharia’ counsel. Islamic banking under the principles of Sharia’ represents a standard way of economic life. Muslims and non-Muslims alike will learn from these moral standards in all business deals. .
In its mandate to formulate the rules and regulations for the Islamic Bank, the Monetary Board in the Philippines was required by law under Section 48 of RA 6848 to observe “the universal principle of the Islamic Sharia’”.
Paramount of this significant development in international banking is the fact that the Muslim way of doing business is gaining understanding and acceptance in the world of business. This could be the start of international harmony among nations.
Today, even the Federal Bank of USA acknowledges Islamic finance as an important development in international banking. That is according to William L. Rutledge, Exec. V P of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in his “Remarks at the 2005 Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA) Conference on Islamic Finance: Players, Products & Innovations in New York City... He further said that as US regulators, they “are open to Islamic financial products” within the U.S. structure.
The charter of the Islamic Bank provides for a Sharia’ Advisory Counsel to review transactions of the bank in accordance with the Sharia’ standards. The law also provides that the Board of Directors shall sit as a Board of Arbitration to settle intra-corporate disputes among shareholders and investors. To implement this mandate, the Board of Directors was authorized by this law to set the rules and procedure that it shall follow in the arbitration while the Monetary Board was mandated to formulate the rules and regulation
The bank was formally organized on April 28, 1992. Soon after, the Rules of Practice and Procedure before the Board of Arbitration was adopted and promulgated by the Board of Directors. Even if it was rather late, the Monetary Board also issued the Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) for the Islamic Bank under BSP Circular 105.
Exactly ten years after its adoption today, the thickness of the IRR is back to the thinness of what it should have been. Today, with some exceptions the IRR is back to being the image-file of the charter of the Islamic Bank. It should now be known as the New Rules and Regulations (NRR) reflecting the new laws of the Millennium in the Philippines, such as the New Central Bank Act, and the New General Banking Law of 2000. And a new development in international banking and finance.
When the IRR for the Islamic Bank was formulated by the Monetary Board in 1996, it includes all sort of rules and regulations applicable to all banks in general including the receipt and payment of interests (riba) which is what the charter prohibits, made illegal and punishable. The rules and regulations applicable to the conventional banks under the old General Banking Act, RA 337 was also made part of the IRR for the Islamic Bank. Sad to say, the Monetary Board in the Philippines never had a Muslim member. The Monetary Board cannot be blamed for something they are not familiar with. Consequently, the Islamic Bank regular lobbyists, namely: the Filipino Muslim Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries, Inc., ( a major stockholder of the Islamic Bank) and the National Alliance of Muslim NGOs of the Philippines lobbied in Congress relentlessly to remove, revise, or reconstruct the general banking law..
Consequently, Congress not only revised the old GBA, RA 337, but replaced it with the New General Banking Law (GBL 2000), RA 8791. Under this new law, some of the powers of the old Monetary Board were clipped, most of them transferred to the Department of Finance, and some of them to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). And yet some of them were eliminated. Some other banks are now governed by other banking laws, placing the Monetary Board as “still supervising” but along with other authorities.
There are now many banking laws in the Philippines. Thrift banks, rural banks and cooperative banks are now governed by the provisions of the Thrift Banks Act, the Rural Banks Act, and the Cooperative Code. Cooperative banks are not only monitored but also supervised by the Cooperative Development Authority. Section 94 of 8791 also provides the "phase out of Bangko Sentral Powers over building and loan associations. All the relevant supervisory and regulatory powers of the Monetary Board under that Section were transferred to the Home Insurance and Guarantee Corporation.
As for the Islamic Bank, it is now governed by special laws as provided in Section 71, RA 8791 - rather than the general banking law. This governance covers the "organization" of the Islamic Bank, "its ownership and capital requirements, powers, supervision and general conduct of business".
As an update to IRR under BSP Circular 106 and in pursuance to the provisions of the new GBL 2000, the Monetary Board, in its Resolution No. 2154 dated December 15, 2000, approved Circular No. 271, Series of 2001, otherwise known as the regulations implementing Section 3 and other related sections of R.A. No. 8791. Under this new rules and regulations (NRR), the Islamic Bank is classified as one kind of its own, with its own sets of rules and regulations as distinguished from the other banks.
