Introduction to history of Islamic banking in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the history of Islamic banking in Malaysia from 1963 until 2010. Design/methodology/approach – To review the history of Islamic banking in Malaysia, data have been gathered from different articles, books and reports about the Islamic banking system in Malaysia. Findings – The paper found that Malaysia as an Islamic country has an outstanding infrastructure to support the establishment of an Islamic banking hub in the Islamic region. Originality/value – The paper shows that Malaysia was of the first countries to take a systematic planning approach to develop the Islamic finance system in the region. Islamic banking systems in Malaysia are growing rapidly and progressively, in spite of some other countries wishing to be ahead of Malaysia, such as Singapore and the UK.