The world of fintech has seen a massive uptick over the past few weeks with several organizations making it a point to launch new products. Most developments in the sector were skewed towards bringing in more users into the industry with the sole aim of increasing mass adoption.
The industry received another boost recently when the United States-based Wahed Incorporated acquired Niyah Limited, a digital banking application catering towards the Muslim community. Wahed’s Saudi Aramco connection also makes it one of the major players in the Asian fintech market.
Wahed officials claimed that the acquisition will pave the way for more offerings that would allow Islamic law compliant financial services to grow and thrive.Niyah’s services became popular in the United Kingdom for its easy to use features that worked hand-in-hand with the Sharia Law. As of now, the financial terms of the deal were kept under wraps with the numbers only being discussed between Niyah and Wahed.
Wahed added that the main intention of the deal was to provide its customer base with interest-free financial products such as debit cards and digital bank accounts. The latest movement comes on the back of a $25 million investment into Wahed by Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures. Post the announcement, Wahed chief executive Junaid Wahedna said:
“All the money you keep with us will be invested according to your preference. There is no reason why we should not broaden out the scope of our reach to everyone.”
Wahed’s 100,000 strong customer base was excited for new features to be added onto the platform. What makes Wahed stand out is its adherence to the Muslim Shariah Law which prohibits charging the users base with interest. According to reports from within the company, Wahed will allow customers to keep a certain amount of funds on themselves. This was done so that the cash deposits are not used for lending but rather to earn interest. The company added that once the current developments take hold, there are plans to diversify into other communities as well.