Meethaq Islamic Banking from Bank Muscat is the most popular and largest Islamic banking services provider in the Sultanate of Oman, offering a full suite of Shari’a-compliant retail, corporate banking and wholesale banking products and services. Since its inception 9 years ago, Meethaq Islamic Banking has been enjoying phenomenal growth and continues to set new benchmarks. It has been very encouraging to see both retail and corporate customers wholeheartedly adopting innovative Islamic banking and finance solutions, which were previously unavailable in Oman.
In line with its excellent customer-centric vision and full commitment to offer a world-class Islamic banking experience to customers in every corner of the country, Meethaq has established the largest Islamic branch network in the Sultanate of Oman consisting of 12 branches in the Governorate of Muscat and 12 branches across other governorates. In addition to its already excellent network of branches, Meethaq has a dedicated network of 41 ATMs/CDMs and also provides free access to more than 740 plus ATMs and CDMs of Bank Muscat across the country for customers to conduct their banking transactions with ease. This has resulted in Meethaq enjoying the tremendous confidence of its extensive base of customers.
Meethaq demonstrated its leadership in the sultanate’s Islamic banking sector yet again by growing its assets despite the strong economic headwinds brought about by the ongoing pandemic. It is noteworthy that with close to 30 per cent market share of the total Islamic assets in the Sultanate of Oman, Meethaq Islamic banking is significantly bigger than both full-fledged Islamic banks and other Islamic windows operating in the Sultanate of Oman.
Supporting Oman’s economic development
Meethaq has been at the forefront in actively supporting the Sultanate of Oman’s economic development with its ever-growing suite of Islamic finance products and services catering to the varied and sophisticated needs of its different customer segments. In May 2017, Meethaq attained a notable milestone when it received approval from the Capital Market Authority and the Central Bank of Oman to launch the first Sukuk programme in the Sultanate of Oman allowing participation by retail investors. The maiden Sukuk issuance was a great success with subscriptions far exceeding the initial target amount. Meethaq exercised its greenshoe option to absorb the excess demand for its Sukuk and raised a total of RO 44.6 million, which was well above the initial target of RO 25 million. Similarly, Meethaq Sukuk Second Series launched in 2019 was a resounding success with the Islamic banking leader successfully raising an additional RO 45.6 million. Building on these successes, Meethaq has played a pivotal role in several sovereign Sukuk issuances by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman. In addition to supporting the Sukuk issuances in various capacities which include being mandated as the Sole Lead Manager, Issue Manager and Book Runner, Meethaq has always been the largest Islamic Financial Institutional investor in all of the Government of the Sultanate of Oman Sukuk issued so far. This reflects Meethaq’s commitment to support the Sultanate’s sustainable economic and development growth over the long term.
Meethaq recognizes the immense investment prospects and potential offered by the Sultanate of Oman and continues to play an important role in the development of key sectors in the Sultanate. In support of Oman’s Food Security related strategic initiatives, several local food producers such as Gulf International Poultry, Osoul Poultry Company and Al Nama Poultry have been financed by Meethaq. Meethaq has also been instrumental in the development of the country’s transport and logistics infrastructure by providing financing facilities to Oman Air and Oman Shipping Company. Hence, Meethaq promotes the the Sultanate of Oman’s national goals of achieving strong economic growth, sustainable development and ensuring prosperity for all by financing national initiatives which are vital for the well-being of the country’s economy.
Innovation
Innovation has always been a crucial element of Meethaq’s product offerings and has resulted in the launch of numerous innovative corporate and retail products. Meethaq’s product suite comprises of several variants of Savings and Current Accounts customized to meet the needs of different customer segments, financing solutions such as Home Financing, Car Financing, Personal Goods Financing, Travel Finance, Personal Financing, Education Finance, Marriage Finance, Ijarah Financing, Diminishing Musharaka Financing, Wakala Bil Isthihmar Financing and Goods Murabaha Financing amongst other structured products & services. With the aim of offering a full range of Islamic financial offerings to cater to the different customer segments, Meethaq also offers credit cards, debit cards, Motor Takaful solutions, Trade Finance solutions and Hafawa Premium Banking services. These are essentially additional products and services recently launched by Meethaq in response to the growing sophistication of its customers. It is also noteworthy that even during multiple periods of enhanced social distancing and lockdowns in the post-Covid-19 phase, Meethaq continued to innovate and launch new products or upgraded its existing products and services, which have greatly benefitted its customers. These include digital on-boarding of customers for opening savings accounts, domestic helper, travel and SME Takaful offerings in partnership with Takaful Oman, launch of Corporate Purchase Card, co-branded Lulu Credit Card and the opening of fixed deposits through Mobile banking.
Digital payments
Meethaq is strongly committed towards investing in state-of-the-art technology to further increase efficiency and improve customer service. With emphasis on competitive channels and new products to cater to various customer segments, Meethaq is focused on maintaining leadership in hi-tech products and services, including electronic payment and web-based services, in tune with the banking requirements of a young, tech-savvy generation.
Several significant technology upgrades were implemented over the last 15 months, including the Meethaq Wallet, which supports storing both Meethaq and non-Meethaq credit/prepaid/debit card details or even another bank’s wallet details. This allows customers with a Meethaq Bank wallet to make digital fund transfers to a third party conveniently. It also allows a registered wallet customer to send or request money from anyone just by entering their mobile number or email address, irrespective of whether the customer is a Meethaq Bank wallet user or not. Naturally, the new product has significantly boosted cashless payments in the Sultanate of Oman.
Other recent technological upgrades involved enabling customers of other banks in the Sultanate of Oman to use Bank Muscat and Meethaq CDMs / FFMs to transfer funds to Meethaq or Bank Muscat accounts. Allowing the usage of debit cards issued by other Omani banks at Meethaq and Bank Muscat CDMs has reduced customer visits to Meethaq branches across the Sultanate and helped improve social distancing during the pandemic phase.
Promoting savings
Meethaq has been playing an active role in promoting savings amongst its customers by launching the Hibati savings account. As part of this, Meethaq organised Hibati prize draws throughout the year, with 5 high-value prizes amounting to RO 300,000 to be given away in the upcoming End of Year draw. In total, cash prizes worth more than RO 1.5 million are being given away in 2021 to as many as 5,331 winners. Based on the Sharia concept of unrestricted Mudarabah, the cash prizes offered under Hibati’s 2021 prize draw scheme are ‘Hiba’ (gift) from Meethaq to its customers and are paid out of Mudarib’s (shareholders’) own sources. The cash prizes are in addition to the profit share of Investment Account Holders (IAHs) in the General Mudarabah Pool as per the declared profit rates.
World-class Islamic banking experience
Meethaq’s strong commitment to support the strategic national development initiatives in line with Oman’s Vision 2040 economic blueprint, continued investment in new technologies and infrastructure to nurture and grow existing and new customer segments, has been well recognised by the global Islamic Finance community.
Every Meethaq product goes through the process of Shari’a compliance certification by the Shari’a Supervisory Board and is created in line with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Oman. Meethaq’s adoption of AAOIFI standards (Accounting & Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions) further distinguishes Meethaq Islamic banking practices in terms of standardisation of its products and services complementing its world-class Islamic banking experience.
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