Unique to Malaysia, the settlement of large-value payments within the Islamic banking sector is conducted via a separate system of Islamic current accounts maintained at Bank Negara Malaysia. This separation ensures a clear segregation of funds between conventional and Islamic banking at the settlement level to ensure compliance from the Shariah perspective. Nonetheless, liquidity in both systems are linked given thirdparty payments between banking customers in the two sectors, as well as the participation of conventional banking institutions in Islamic banking products.

The primary objective of the Bank’s monetary operations in the Islamic money market is to ensure su!cient liquidity for the effcient functioning of the Islamic interbank market. The monetary policy target is only implemented in the conventional money market, where interest rate based instruments are the primary funding instrument. The Bank influences Islamic interbank market liquidity through an array of Shariah-compliant instruments, the main instrument being the Qard acceptance (loan). Through the Qard acceptance, the Bank manages liquidity in the context of a surplus liquidity environment by inviting Islamic banking institutions to place their surplus funds with the Bank. The Bank also uses Commodity Murabahah Programme (CMP) to manage liquidity. CMP utilises mainly crude palm oil-based contracts as the underlying commodity transactions to facilitate

liquidity management via a commodity trading platform such as Bursa Suq Al Sila’, or other commodity providers.

For longer-term liquidity management, the Bank issues Bank Negara Monetary Notes-i (BNMN-i) which are structured based on Islamic concepts of Murabahah (BNMN-Murabahah), Ijarah (BNMN-Ijarah), Bai Bithaman Ajil (BNMN-BBA) and Istithmar(BNMN-Istithmar). The key objectives of issuing BNMN-i are to increase effciency and flexibility in liquidity management in the Islamic money market by diversifying Islamic financial instruments and expanding the Shariah concept used in BNM’s Islamic monetary operation.

Further details on on the Islamic Interbank Money Market can be obtained at http://iimm.bnm.gov.my/