Indonesia’s ‘born-again’ Muslims quit banks for Islamic finance

With exploitative interest frowned upon in Islamic law, bankers are quitting traditional banks, creating hiring woes.

A rise in religious conservatism in Indonesia is drawing talent away from what some view as “un-Islamic” jobs in banking, industry professionals say, creating hiring woes for conventional banks but a boon for the country’s fledgeling Islamic finance sector. The trend comes amid a broader societal change in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, driven by millions of young, “born-again” Muslims embracing stricter interpretations of Islam. Reuters spoke to a dozen industry sources about how concern over Islamic law barring exploitative interest payments, known as “riba”, is reverberating through the world of Indonesian finance.