A Site for the Muslim Investor

MALAYSIA, New Straits Times-Management Times (AP)--Kedah-born Dr. Hasnita Hashim has worked tirelessly the past six years developing and implementing Islamic financial products and solutions.

A pioneer in Islamic investment banking, the 38-year-old daughter of former Kedah education director Datuk Hashim Maidin has explored areas such as asset management, structured finance, and asset securitization.

She was instrumental in the setting up of the First Islamic Investment Bank of Bahrain in 1994 and was involved in establishing the Islamic Equity Fund in Kuwait.

Today, six years after all the toil in putting the Islamic financial system on the right footing, Hasnita and business partner Peter Farid Faisal have pooled their expertise to set up the world's first Islamic finance and investment Internet website--www.IslamiQ.com.

Peter Farid, whom she met in Malaysia in 1998, has 22 years experience in the media sector and is co-founder of the Articulate Group of Companies, which is primarily involved in television programming, telecommunication services, and software development and programming.

He is also the founder of Teleworld Holding BV, a leader in the European premium-rate telephone-line market.

"We met through friends and decided to utilize our expertise to come to this stage," said Hasnita, who has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Oxford University. IslamiQ.com is the world's first website to offer a range of banking, finance, and insurance products and services to meet the significant online demand for investment products from Muslims.

"Until now, the global Muslim community has had to use general financial websites to conduct their financial affairs.

"These fail to appreciate the Islamic values that the Muslim investor requires if he or she is to feel comfortable accessing information and trading online," said Hasnita, the CEO of IslamiQ.com.

The Islamic capital market, currently worth US$150 billion (RM570 billion), has a growth forecast of 30% per annum and an estimated 94 million Muslim Internet users by 2002.

"There is a very real demand for IslamiQStocks.com and IslamiQMoney.com," said Hasnita of the two vertical financial portals that IslamiQ.com offers to retail and professional investors.

IslamiQ.com has raised US$6 million (RM22.8 million) to launch the portals and has major backing from leading institutions, including The International Investor of Kuwait and Jeddah-based Dallah Al Barakah Group.

The company is preparing a second round of funding for approximately US$50 million (RM190 million) and aiming to list a major international stock market next year.

IslamiQMoney.com is a site for Islamic financial products and services, and Hasnita expects it to be a leading gateway to Islamic personal finance on the Internet.

It offers Muslims of all ages and nationalities access to a wider choice of banking, finance, and insurance products and services.

It includes real-time international financial news and securities quotes, real-estate and home-finance rates, investment funds and saving rates, insurance (

) products, taxation advice and planning,

(tithe) and

(donation) centers, online financial tools, and e-commerce.

IslamiQ.com also offers an online newspaper--IslamiQ Financial Daily (www.IslamiQDaily

.com), the first global Islamic financial news service.

Born in Derga, Alor Star, Hasnita set her sights on economics during her stint with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, London, immediately after obtaining her doctorate.

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