The term "Family Takaful" means "guarantee the family" which is more apt than the term "Life insurance", simply because no one can guarantee his own life, what more other people's life. What an individual participates in when he takes up a family takaful is to ensure that when he is indisposed, his immediate family will receive the benefits of the takaful that he has participated in. The benefits will be in three different forms, the accumulated contribution that he has made over the years, the profit that the accumulated contributions have earned and the takaful coverage that he has pledged to participate in.

Since the last decade, Islamic Finance (IF) has seen unparalleled growth in terms of industry size and value. According to E&Y World Islamic Banking Competitive Report 2014/15, the Global Islamic Banking assets witnessed a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 17% from 2009 - 2013.

This research provides insights into the factors influencing Takaful penetration rate of the Malaysian Takaful industry for the period 1985-2008. Its objective is to identify the factors that influence the market penetration from the perspective of Takaful participants. Data was collected through a survey and was analyzed using SPSS software. Employed techniques was Cross Tabulation & Chi-Square tests. It was found that the factors influencing Takaful penetration were age, gender, religion, marital status, education, income, awareness, product varieties, and knowledge of staff and agents of Takaful. The research findings suggest the need to increase product varieties, training of staff and agents to enhance their product knowledge, technical and Shariah knowledge as well as to intensify the level of awareness.

The first takaful company was established in Sudan in 1979. It was no until six years laters that the first takaful company was established in Malaysia, which is Syarikat Takaful Malaysia after the promulgation of the Takaful Act in 1984. Malaysia has emerged as the largest Takaful market in South East Asia and the second largest after Saudi Arabia with a contribution of US$ 0.9 billion in 2008. (Ernst and Young World Takaful Report, 2010).

The Malaysian Takaful industry has experienced encouraging growth since its inception in 1985. Annual growth rate of the industry has been estimated to be around 20%. Despite such impressive rate of growth, it is believed that the market penetration of Takaful is still low. This paper seeks to find the factors influencing Takaful market penetration based on the experience of managers of Takaful operators. Twenty (20) Takaful managers were randomly selected and interviewed. The interviewees pointed out the factors that deter the public from participating in Takaful could be listed as follows: the lack of public awareness in the advantages of Takaful over insurance products, the limited range of product varieties, the shortage of relevant expertise to explain Takaful products, the need to improve the distribution channels and marketing strategies. The paper also suggested several ways of improving Takaful market penetration, namely: the need to develop tailor-made products to suit customer needs according to the different segments of the society, expanding the range of product varieties, extensive training of staff and agents to enhance their products and services, technical and Shari’ah knowledge as well as to intensify promotion for higher level of awareness.

This paper sought to find the factors influencing Takaful market penetration based on the experience of managers of Takaful operators. Twenty (20) Takaful managers were randomly selected and interviewed. The method of analysis employed is The Thematic Analysis. The interviewees pointed out the factors that deter the public from participating in Takaful could be listed as follows: the lack of public awareness in the advantages of Takaful over insurance products, the limited range of product varieties, the shortage of relevant expertise to explain Takaful products, the need to improve the distribution channels and marketing strategies. The paper also suggested several ways of improving Takaful market penetration, namely: the need to develop tailor-made products to suit customer needs according to the different segments of society, expanding the range of product varieties, extensive training of staff and agents in order to enhance their products and services, technical and Shariah knowledge as well as to intensify promotion for higher level of awareness. The paper is a rare attempted to investigate the factors influencing Takaful market penetration in Malaysia context.

It is exactly a decade after the East-Asian Financial crisis of 1997-98 that the world is saddled with yet a much bigger and deeper financial and economic turmoil. The East-Asian Financial crisis was mainly due to the serious structural weaknesses of the East Asian economies where rapid economic growth for over seven years was not supported by genuine growth engine. Rather it was fuelled by rapid monetary growth, current account deficits, negative Savings-Investment gaps and short term capital inflows. The vulnerability was further enhanced by overvalued exchange rate and reduction in foreign capital inflow.

Evidence has been mounting that the interest-based debt financing regime is under increasing distress. Evidence also suggests that the financial crises, whatever title they carried - exchange rate crisis or banking crisis – have been debt related crises in essence. At present, data suggest that the debt-to-GDP ratio of the richest members of the G-20 is expected to reach 120% mark by 2014. There is also evidence that out of securities worth US$ 200 trillion in the global economy, no less than three-fourth represent interest-based debt. It is difficult to see how this massive debt volume can be validated by the underlying productive capacity of the global economy. This picture becomes more alarming considering the anemic state of global economic growth. There is great uncertainty with regard to interest rates. Although policy-driven interest rates are at near-zero level, there is no assurance that they will not rise as the risk and inflation premia become significant. Hence, a more serious financial crisis may be in the offing and a general collapse of asset prices may occur. This paper argues that the survival of the interest-based debt regime is becoming less tenable, as is the process of financialization that has accompanied the growth of global finance over the last four decades. The above has resulted in an unprecedented increase in economic risks; generating (adverse) non-linearities in system’s behavior. Such a behavior is nothing but a demonstration of the verse, “Allah obliterates riba ….” of the Qur’an. As a result, the search is on for a paradigm shift towards a less volatile and more resilient financing regime. The paper proposes risk sharing based Islāmic financing as suitable alternative and also demonstrates empirically its better growth and stability characteristics by using advanced dynamic heterogeneous panel techniques.

Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain represent more than 48.9%, 44.6% and 27.7% market share respectively. Posititve progress has been made in Indonesia, Turkey and Pakistan, with 43.5%, 18.7% and 22.0%. CGAR respectively from 2009-2013. International Islamic banking assets with commercial banks set to exceed US$778b in 2014. The global profit pool of Islamic banks is set to triple by 2016.

12 takaful operators providing family takaful products. Total contribution is around RM 4.2 billions. Average growth rate is around 22%. The market will double every five years. Only slightly more than half (54%) of the population have either life insurance or family takaful. Family takaful penetration is still low at 11%.

Banks keep only the required reserves and lend out or invest the rest of the deposits made by the depositors. In a fractional-reserve banking system, the loan of one bank becomes the deposit of another bank. This will allow the second bank to lend out all the deposits less the required reserves. In this way, the total money created is the reverse of the reserve ratio. If the reserve requirement is 10%, then the total money created will be 10 times the deposit.

The slides "Islamic finance in Malaysia: development and growth" presented by Prof. Datuk Dr. Syed Othman Alhabshi to the Delegates from Ministry of Finance, Ghana, at INCEIF.

Evolution of Islamic finance in the last decade. This decade has seen the rapid evolution of Islamic Finance resulting in the dramatic transformation of the industry. From being focused on retail financing to providing an extensive spectrum of financial products and services. From being focused on Muslim community to having an extended reach that serves the non-Muslim community.

The Quran relates the story of Prophet Joseph who was a master in interpreting dreams. When the King of Egypt saw in his dream that there were seven lean cows eating seven fat cows and that there were seven green ears of corn and seven others that withered, Prophet Joseph said there will be seven years of prosperity to be followed by seven years of famine. What was mentioned in the Quran which happened thousands of years ago, is still being repeated until the present day. What is obvious is that each recession was more severe than the previous one.

Poverty has plagued mankind of all ages. In most developing countries including those in Asia, Africa and Latin America, more than 40 percent of the population lack some basic need or other. In some countries, the poverty level is much higher than the 40% threshold. Poverty is as serious even in the rich Middle East countries. Poverty exists even in advanced economies such as USA, Europe

When the Prophet (saw) first received the revelation, he was so scared and went back to his beloved wife Khadijah to cover him up. Khadijah comforted him by saying that Allah would not for sake you because you help the poor, you love orphans, you helped people, etc. Early converts were mostly the poor and slaves. Only a few were wealthy individuals such as Abu Bakr As-Siddiq and Uthman Ibn Affan (ra).

Masalah paling penting: sistem kewangan berdasarkan riba telah menguasai dunia selama lebih lima abad semenjak bermulanya ekonomi perdagangan dan perbankan pada abad ke-16. Hakikatnya ialah ribatelah menjadi tajuk perdebatan selama lebih 3,000 tahun Aristotle, ahli falsafah dan pemikir berbangsa Greek, dalam bukunya "Politics" telah membantah amalan riba sekeras-kerasnya. Aristotle menulis, "Of the two sorts of money-making; one is a part of household management, the other is retail trade: the former necessary and honourable, the latter a kind of exchange which is justly censured; for it is unnatural, and a mode by which men gain from one another."

Leaders are needed everywhere. They are at all levels, have different roles at different places and times, always portray their potentials at the right time. They do not have the same style all the time and may or may not be successful.

The Malaysian Takaful industry has experienced encouraging growth sinceits commencement in 1985. Annual growth rate of the industry has beenestimated at 20%. Despitethis rapid rate of growth the rate of penetration isstill not impressive. This paper seeks to find the reasons for this relativelylow penetration rate of the Takaful industry among Malaysians from the perspective of Malaysians who do not participate in the Takaful industry.The method employed to achieve the objective of this paper was the surveymethod; Data analysed using Logistic Regression Model (LR).This research finds that marketing, is a robust predictor of Takaful demand, as 50% of the respondents have not been approached by any Takaful agents, while religion has a significant relationship with Takaful consumption as majorityof the respondents do not plan to have Takaful is not permissible being similar to conventional insurance (Haram). Also age was a significant factor among the young respondents not planning to participate in Takaful policies.

Bahasa Kebangsaan digunapakai di setiap sektor kerajaan semenjak Bahasa Melayu dijadikan Bahasa Kebangsaan kerana ia adalah dasar negara. Sektor kerajaan termasuklah dalam semua bidang pentadbiran dan pendidikan. Bahkan, untuk mengendalikan program pendidikan didalam Bahasa lain daripada Bahasa Kebangsaan perlukan kelulusan Menteri.

Ekonomi merupakan asas hidup yang amat penting dan bermakna. Masalah ekonomi boleh menjelma dalam berbagai cara. Ketidak seimbangan ekonomi menonjolkan perasaan negatif antara mereka yang berada dan yang tidak berada. Paras harga yang tinggi juga boleh menjadi masalah besar. Inflasi boleh menghakis pendapatan terutama mereka yang berpendapatan rendah. Pengangguran juga akan membawa akibat yang buruk kepada negara. Yang paling penting ialah kadar kemiskinan yang semakin meninggi boleh menjajaskan kesetabilan sosial dan politik negara.