Friday, 20 September 2013

Shariah Screening Criteria by Security Commission of Malaysia


The screening process for Securities Commission (SC) is taken by the Shariah Advisory Council of SC. There are two phases of screening process which are, the industries screening and the second phase is the financial screening. Click Here for the latest Shariah stock screening criteria by SC (November 2013)



SC Industries Screening criteria

To be listed in list of shariah compliant company by SC, the core activities of the companies should be Shariah compatible. Companies will be classified as shariah non-compliant stocks if their core businesses activities have involve in following elements:
a)            Financial services based on riba (interest),
b)            Gambling and gaming,
c)            Manufacture or sale of non-halal products or related products,
d)            Conventional insurance,
e)            Entertainment activities which are non-permissible according to Shariah,
f)             Manufacture or sale of tobacco-based products or related products,
g)            Stockbroking or share trading in Shariah non-compliant securities, and
h)            Other activities deemed non-permissible according to Shariah.     
           Source: Bulletin of Malaysian Islamic Capital Market (1st quarter of 2011 issue)

Hence a company which involve in these activities as their core business will be excluded from the list of shariah compliant company by Securities Commission of Malaysia.



SC Financial Screening Criteria

The quantitative screening involve when a companies practice a mixed shariah and shariah non-compliant activities which will affected the purity of the company income. For this, SC considers two additional criteria for this mixed halal and haram income company before applying the benchmark which will decide either the stock from the company are shariah compliant or not. The criteria are:

i)  The public perception or image of the company must be good, and
ii) The core or main activities of the company are important and considered in the public interest (maslahah) to the Muslim community (ummah) and the country. Furthermore, the non-permissible element is very insignificant and involves matters such as common plight and difficult to avoid (umumbalwa), custom (uruf) and the rights of the non-Muslim community which are accepted by Islam.

If a company qualify these terms and condition, next, SC will screen their mix halal and haram income sources by using benchmark  based on reasoning from the source of Shariah by qualified Shariah scholars.

If the income contributions from non-permissible activities exceed the benchmark, the securities of the company will be classified as shariah non-compliant stock.

The benchmarks are:

a)            The 5-percent (5%) benchmark
This benchmark is used to assess the level of mixed contributions from the activities that are     clearly prohibited such as riba (interest-based companies like conventional banks), maysir (gambling), liquor, pork and non-halal food production.

b)            The 10-percent (10%) benchmark
This benchmark is used to assess the level of mixed contributions from the activities that involve the element of ‘umumbalwa’ which is prohibited element affecting most people and difficult to avoid. For examples, interest income from fixed deposits in conventional banks.

c)            The 20-percent (20%) benchmark
 This benchmark is used to assess the level of contribution from mixed rental payment from Shariah non-compliant activities such as the rental payment from the premise that involved in gambling, sale of liquor, and others that related.

d)            The 25-percent (25%) benchmark
This benchmark is used to assess the level of mixed contributions from the activities that generally permissible according to the Shariah and have an element of maslahah (public   interest), but there are other elements that may affect the Shariah status of these activities, for example, hotel and resort operations, share trading, stock broking, as these activities may also involve other activities that are deemed non-permissible according to the Shariah.
           Source: Bulletin of Malaysian Islamic Capital Market (1st quarter of 2011 issue)





P/S: I will update this entry if there are changes of benchmark set by SC, which I heard it will be changes maybe in the end of this year or maybe next year. Click here for the latest Shariah screening criteria by SAC of SC (November 2013)

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