Diamond Standard announces Fatwa: The ideal solution for Islamic finance
Diamond Standard Co., producer of the world's only regulator-approved natural diamond commodities, on Thursday announced a historic milestone for the Islamic finance industry: the issuance of a fatwa by Sheikh Dr. Mohamed Ali Elgari, approving the use of diamond commodities to enable more efficient and more proper Islamic finance applications.
Dr. Elgari is an esteemed authority in Islamic finance, having served as Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Islamic Economics at King Abdulaziz University, and as Shariah board member for organizations including AAOIFI, Islamic Fiqh Academy, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, BlackRock, Citibank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NDB, HSBC, Standard Chartered and other banks worldwide.
The Fatwa signifies a pivotal breakthrough for Islamic finance, where the lending of money with interest is prohibited under Shariah. Instead of directly lending money, the annual settlement for $5 trillion of global loan and bond transactions must be asset-backed, through structures like commodity Murabaha.
Until now, commodity Murabaha used metals like nickel, copper, or aluminum. These assets were often created on paper, as options and warrants — a practice now in conflict with AAOIFI Standard 62, which requires the title to the commodity to be delivered to the borrower. Gold, silver, and food commodities are not permitted for Murabaha, and use of metals can result in substantial storage and delivery costs. In contrast, Diamond Standard commodities are a Shariah compliant, fully deliverable and fungible physical asset, with custody and delivery costs up to 97% less than that for metals like copper.
After the issuance of Standard 62, a consortium of Islamic banks asked Diamond Standard to develop a commodity Murahaba solution, with audited physical custody in a Muslim majority country.
Technology meets tradition
Diamonds are a $1.2 trillion natural resource that was inaccessible to investors. Diamond Standard commodities — physical coins and bars — contain optimized and equivalent sets of diamonds, transparently sealed with a wireless computer chip. Since the commodities are all equal, they trade easily on spot exchanges, with a daily market price reported by Bloomberg. The wireless chip enables each commodity to issue an electronic title of ownership, recorded and traded securely on a public blockchain. This innovation supports instant title transfer and remote audit, and eliminates all uncertainty. The commodities are approved to settle CFTC-regulated futures and options in the U.S., and the commodity production is internally audited by Deloitte.
GCC expansion
To provide a standing pool of commodities to support Islamic applications, and enable investors to allocate to diamonds as a newly accessible natural resource, Diamond Standard is launching a commodity holding and trading company in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. This entity will:
● Supply Shariah-compliant diamond commodities to Islamic finance institutions and trading platforms for Murabaha via an active market making desk.
● Offer a listed fund vehicle for equity and Sukuk investors seeking to invest in hard assets, expecting the value of diamonds to increase due to Islamic and investment demand.
● Anchor the development of new manufacturing, exports, and trading in the GCC region.
This Diamond Standard commodity holding company has secured $280 million in capital commitments and is in discussions with GCC anchor investors to finalize the location of diamond importing, production and trading in the region. The initiative is expected to create over 200 new jobs, relating to commodity operations, import and export, marketing, trading, custody, and lending–as well as Islamic finance jobs.
Tax free custody at DMCC
Diamond Standard also announced that it had selected the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) as the venue to provide audited, tax-free custody for the Diamond Standard commodities. This will benefit Islamic banks and investors by avoiding the tariffs on diamonds entering the U.S. and elsewhere.
Unlocking a New Future
Cormac Kinney, Founder and CEO of Diamond Standard, stated: 'We intended to unlock $1.2 trillion of natural diamonds as an investment asset, but their dense value, combined with modern technology, has surprisingly made diamonds ideal for Islamic finance. We are honored to offer this asset to strengthen Islamic values.'
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