CHALLENGES FACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAKAFUL INDUSTRY IN BANGLADESH AND INDONESIA: A REVIEW

Takaful is the Islamic version of insurance, and the size of global takaful industry is about USD$51 billion in 2019. Limited studies have been conducted on the development of takaful sector in Bangladesh and Indonesia using a comparative approach. As such, this review aims at investigating the challenges facing the development of takaful industry in these two countries. Primary sources such as laws and regulations, and the secondary sources such as scholarly articles and books on the subject matter were reviewed to derive conclusions. This review concludes that efficiency of takaful in both countries depend on some common factors, such as having a proper and sophisticated regulatory framework for takaful with the development of required talent pool while focusing on creating awareness and education to ensure that not only the general public have the required takaful literacy; but even the existing and potential customers have the basic knowledge about takaful. Further, it is also found in this review that in order to further develop the takaful industry in both countries, it is imperative to use innovation and technology to promote takaful parallel to the conventional insurance by creating a level playing field. This review also identifies some specific issues in both countries and have suggested recommendations accordingly. It is anticipated that the outcome of this review will assist policy makers and other stakeholders to understand the inhibitions facing the development of takaful industry in these two jurisdictions with hope that these challenges can be eliminated for the sustainable development of takaful sector.