SettleMint to create Sharia compliant financial products for the Islamic Development Bank member countries.
RELEASE ONOCTOBER16TH, 2017
Leuven, BE – SettleMint is pleased to announce that it has just signed an agreement with the Islamic Research and Training Institute, the research arm of theIslamic Development Bank Group, to build a Blockchain-based financial product that can be used to support development and inclusion in IsDB member countries.
SettleMint, together with their local partnerAteon, will be working on the first of its kind use case, using Blockchain’s smart contracts to create Sharia-compliant financial products to support the development in IsDB member countries.
The evolution and increasing interest in Blockchain represents a paradigm shift in the industry. It is apparently disrupting (in a positive way) the traditional financial landscape, creating a wide array of new business opportunities and cutting operational costs dramatically
From an Islamic-economic perspective, money should be transparent, stable, and trustworthy. Blockchain technologies are able in principle to serve these objectives robustly and cost-effectively.
Smart contracts, a feature of Blockchain technologies such as Ethereum, are essentially self-executing digital contracts. The terms of the agreement between the parties in a transaction are electronically coded in smart contracts and will execute when pre-defined conditions are met. The use of smart contracts, therefore, enables the automation of the entire contractual process for Islamic institutions, alleviating the additional administrative and legal complexities and redundancies associated with Sharia-compliant financial products. Not only that, smart contracts are easy to verify, immutable and secure. The International Fiqh Academy has approved contracting through electronic means since 1990.
An additional attribute of Blockchain based transactional systems is the near instantaneous clearing and settlement of transactions and asset exchanges. This naturally mitigates considerable operational risks arising from clearing settlement and in many cases eliminates counterparty risk. This means that capital tied up on the balance sheet for financial services providers can be released and deployed to more productive ends. All in all, smart contracts and Blockchain-based clearing and settlement of transactions will, on the one hand, substantially streamline the operations of Islamic financial institutions and, on the other, potentially automate the entire contractual process.
SettleMint will deploy theirMint dAPIon top of custom designed Ethereum smart contracts and specific wallet software to bring this innovation to the IsDB member countries.
“We are very excited to be able to contribute to this project. One of the core values of SettleMint has always been to change the world for the better, and by using the blockchain technology to further financial inclusion and development of the 57 member countries, fits our ambitions to the letter.” – Matthew Van Niekerk, CEO & Founder SettleMint
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More information:
Matthew Van Niekerk
Founder & CEO
+32 475 95 61 95
Roderik van der Veer
Founder & CTO
+32 491 50 58 15
About SettleMint
While working together on Blockchain applications for a large financial institution,Matthew Van NiekerkandRoderik van der Veerquickly realised that the promise of the Blockchain technology far exceeded the boundaries of the financial world and would permeate industry and society entirely in the years to come. Simultaneously, it was very apparent that there was and is a huge gap between the capabilities of organisations that want to innovate with Blockchain and the technology itself.
SettleMint was founded in 2016 to bridge the gap, creating a suite of developer tools that enable any enterprise developer to build blockchain based applications. ‘Mint’ encapsulates considerable R&D on the technical, operational and organisational aspects of this technology and packages this in easy to use developer tools that abstract away complexity. These tools are packaged in the form of modular software development kits (SDK) that contain smart contract templates, API layers, micro services and browser components.
Based on our R&D examining 500+ known use cases and the fully functioning blockchain based applications that we have already developed for clients, we estimate that ‘Mint’ covers approximately 80% of the interactions with blockchain technologies that are required to power these applications.
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About Islamic Research and Training Institute
The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) is an entity within the Islamic Development Bank Group and serves as the IDB Group’s primary organizational unit for the delivery of Islamic Finance research, training, information, advisory, technical assistance and Islamic Financial Products development services within the Group and to its Member Countries.
IRTI is responsible for basic and applied research in Islamic finance with the mission to facilitate its practical application in collaboration with other IDB Group members and partner organizations. IRTI is also responsible for enabling the development and sustenance of a dynamic and comprehensive Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI), which supports the socio-economic development in member countries. It is also mandated to develop capacity of the personnel engaged in Islamic finance development activities in the IDB Group’s Member Countries.
IRTI’s lead role as the focal point in the IDB Group for all matters related to Islamic Economics and Finance will entail research, policy dialogue, training, advisory, technical assistance and Islamic Financial Products development, in addition to working closely with internal and external stakeholders (such as Islamic Finance Infrastructure Institutions) to support and promote the development of the Islamic Finance Services Industry.
About Islamic Development Bank
The Islamic Development Bank is an international Islamic financial institution, established in accordance with Articles of Agreement done at the City of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 24/7/1394(12/8/1974), signed and ratified by all member countries. The Inaugural Meeting of the Board of Governors took place in Rajab 1395H, corresponding to July 1975, and the Bank was formally opened on 15 Shawwal 1395H corresponding to 20 October 1975.
The purpose of the Bank is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Shari'ah i.e., Islamic Law.
The functions of the Bank are to participate in equity capital and grant loans for productiveprojectsand enterprises besides providing financial assistance tomember countriesin other forms for economic and social development. The Bank is also required to establish and operatespecial fundsfor specific purposes including a fund for assistance to Muslim communities in non-member countries, in addition to setting up trust funds. The Bank is authorized to accept deposits and to mobilize financial resources through Shari'ah compatible modes. It is also charged with the responsibility of assisting in the promotion offoreign tradeespecially in capital goods, among member countries; providing technical assistance to member countries; and extending training facilities for personnel engaged in development activities in Muslim countries to conform to the Shari'ah.
The present membership of the Bank consists of57 countries. The basic condition for membership is that the prospective member country should be a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), pay its contribution to the capital of the Bank and be willing to accept such terms and conditions as may be decided upon by the IDB Board of Governors.
The Bank's principal office is in Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Four regional offices were opened in Rabat, Morocco (1994), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1994). Almaty, Kazakhstan (1997), and Dakar, Senegal (2008). It also has two country gateway offices in Ankara, Turkey and Jakarta (Indonesia) and field representatives in 14 member countries (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Iran, Mali, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Mauritania and Libya).