Islamic Banking and Finance: Is IT Complementing or Competing The Conventional Banks

Abstract The Islamic banking industry is still considered in its infancy period. However, the growth is quite fast considering the type of business and the products that they have. In Brunei Darussalam, Islamic banking has just started it operation on January 1993, meaning to say that the industry is still at its growing stage. The competition, however, for client base is very competitive due to the market size in Brunei. The main objective for the set up of the Islamic banking was as part of the fardhu kifayah (religious obligation) and providing the Muslim population with halal venues for investing and funding their businesses and personal needs. This paper looks how Islamic bank start as a complementary product if not a substitutes to the conventional banking financial instruments especially in the Islamic Bank of Brunei context. Detail explanation of similarities of financial instrument will be laid out in this paper. The emergence of western banking giants opening-up subsidiaries or Islamic windows and competing directly has created greater impacts on the banking industry in Brunei. This will be determined by the bank's performance, market share, strategic approach and regulatory factors. Finally, addressing the issues and challenges faced by Islamic Banking in the small economies. For example Countries like Brunei with limited customer base and where the multinational banks has creep in taking advantage of their expertise to win certain high profile financing projects and in end recommending some suggestions on 'how the local Islamic bank need to react accordingly'