How Quickly Should an Islamic Banking Product Get to Market?
A bank can have a strong product idea, Sharia approval, a clear target market, and customers waiting. Yet the product can still spend weeks or months moving between product, technology, operations, finance, and compliance teams before it reaches the market. The core banking system is often part of the reason.
To launch an Islamic banking product, the institution has to translate an approved contract into something the core can actually execute. Product rules need configuration. Accounting treatment has to work correctly. Workflows must follow the approved process. Asset requirements may need to be enforced. Teams also have to test what happens before a transaction reaches the ledger.
The amount of custom development required during this process has a direct effect on time to market.
With Mizan, our benchmark for a properly parameterised basic Murabaha product is 1 to 3 business days for product configuration. An Ijara product with asset tracking and schedule customisation can typically be configured in 3 to 5 business days. More complex structured products can require 1 to 2 weeks, including approval workflows.
Those figures refer to product configuration within an implemented Mizan environment. They should not be confused with the timeline for deploying an entire core banking system.
Understanding that distinction is the first step towards setting a realistic product launch benchmark.
Product Configuration Time Is Different From Core Implementation Time
When executives hear that a Murabaha product can be configured within a few days, one question usually follows: does this mean the bank can implement a new core and launch within the same period?
The simple answer is No.
A full core banking implementation involves a much wider programme. The institution may need data migration, integration with existing channels, infrastructure preparation, user acceptance testing, staff training, reporting validation, cutover planning, and internal approvals.
Product configuration begins once the underlying platform is ready.
Think about a bank that already runs Mizan and wants to introduce a new Murabaha product for a specific customer segment. The product team is working within an environment that already understands Murabaha contract logic. The configuration exercise can therefore focus on the actual commercial and operational parameters of the new product.
That is a very different exercise from teaching a conventional banking system how to support Murabaha through new code and workarounds.
This is one reason institutions evaluating how quickly they can launch an Islamic banking product should ask core vendors two separate questions:
- How long will the core implementation take?
- Once live, how quickly can our team configure another Islamic product?
The second question tells you much more about your future speed to market.
How Long Does Murabaha Product Configuration Take?
For a basic Murabaha product on Mizan, our benchmark is 1 to 3 business days with proper parameterisation.
Why can configuration happen within that window?
Murabaha already exists within Mizan as a supported Islamic finance product structure. The team does not have to create conventional lending logic and then modify it into a cost-plus sale structure. Instead, configuration works within the appropriate contract framework.
Depending on the product, teams can define the relevant commercial parameters, approval requirements, repayment structure and associated asset process. Mizan also embeds asset-backing and ownership flow into financing workflows, while its validation controls can stop Murabaha disbursement before the required asset purchase step has taken place.
This matters because speed should not come from skipping controls.
If a bank wants to launch an Islamic banking product quickly, its technology should reduce unnecessary configuration work while preserving the steps that make the transaction valid.
How Long Does Ijara Product Configuration Take?
Ijara usually introduces more configuration work because the transaction involves an asset that the institution needs to manage throughout the lease.
Our benchmark for Ijara with asset tracking and schedule customisation is 3 to 5 business days, assuming the required parameters and approvals are available.
Mizan supports the financing lifecycle alongside asset management. The platform can link an asset to its originating financing deal, associated customer and relevant investment pool where applicable. Its asset management capability also supports ongoing tracking and audit reporting.
For the bank, this means the configuration process can focus on the actual terms of the Ijara product instead of building basic asset-management capability each time.
The timeline may still change if the bank introduces unusual workflows, additional approval layers, complex integrations or highly customised requirements. The 3 to 5 day benchmark should therefore be treated as a configuration reference for an appropriately scoped product, not a promise that every Ijara structure will take exactly the same time.
What About More Complex Islamic Products?
Some products naturally need more work. Structured Islamic products can introduce additional approval stages, accounting treatments, workflows or operational requirements. For those cases, Mizan’s configuration benchmark can extend to 1 to 2 weeks, including approval workflows. The important issue is what consumes that time.
A healthy configuration process should spend time defining the product correctly, validating its behaviour and confirming that the bank’s approved operating requirements are reflected in the system.
Problems arise when much of the timeline goes into trying to make the core understand an Islamic structure it was never designed to support.
That distinction matters when comparing platforms.
What Actually Determines How Long It Takes to Launch an Islamic Banking Product?
There is no honest universal figure for every institution or every product. Even on a purpose-built platform, several factors can extend the path from an approved idea to customer launch.
1. Product complexity
A straightforward Murabaha structure usually requires less configuration than a product with multiple approval paths, unusual repayment treatment or more complex asset requirements. The more exceptions the bank introduces, the more time teams need for configuration and testing.
2. Internal approval readiness
Technology cannot configure decisions the institution has not made. If the product team is still waiting for approved pricing parameters, Sharia sign-off, accounting treatment, required documentation or operational responsibilities, the configuration process will stop and start. Banks that want to move quickly should settle these issues before configuration begins.
3. Existing integrations
A new product may need to interact with mobile banking, payment systems, customer onboarding, identity services or other platforms. Mizan uses a modular, API-first architecture and allows peripheral systems to connect to the core. External transactions still pass through Sharia validation before ledger posting. However, a new or highly specific third-party integration can add work to the launch plan.
4. Testing requirements
A configured product still needs proper testing. Teams should confirm that expected transactions behave correctly, approvals work as intended, accounting entries post to the right accounts and exceptions cannot bypass required controls. The sensible goal is therefore fast configuration with adequate testing, not speed at any cost.
Why Conventional Cores Can Make Product Launches Slower
The ability to launch an Islamic banking product quickly depends heavily on what the underlying core already understands.
When an institution runs Islamic products on a system originally designed around conventional banking, each new product may require additional interpretation. Teams can end up asking questions such as: How do we represent the contract in the existing product engine? How do we keep the system from applying conventional interest behaviour? Where do we store asset evidence? How will we calculate profit? Do we need a spreadsheet or another application? Which GL entries need additional controls?
None of these tasks necessarily makes a launch impossible. They simply add work.
Over time, the institution can accumulate custom code, manual procedures and special configurations around the core. A product launch then becomes dependent on a growing collection of exceptions that teams must remember and test. That is where time to market becomes a structural technology issue.
What Faster Product Configuration Means for the Business
The value of reducing configuration time goes beyond getting a new product into the market a few weeks earlier.
A bank that can configure and test products more efficiently has more room to respond to customer needs. Product teams can evaluate smaller market opportunities without turning every idea into a major technology project.
There is also an operational benefit. When configuration happens within defined contract structures, technology teams spend less time creating one-off fixes. Operations and finance teams can work from clearer system behaviour, while Sharia reviewers get a more traceable connection between the approved product and what eventually reaches the ledger.
For management, that changes the economics of product development. If every new Islamic product requires significant development work, the bank naturally becomes cautious about experimentation. When the core already supports the underlying contract structures, more of the conversation can focus on the customer proposition and commercial opportunity.
A Practical Benchmark for Product Teams
Banks evaluating how quickly they can launch an Islamic banking product can use the following benchmarks as a starting point for conversations with technology vendors.
| Product / Scenario | Mizan Configuration Benchmark | What May Affect the Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Murabaha | 1 to 3 business days | Parameter readiness, internal approvals, testing requirements |
| Ijara with asset tracking and schedule customisation | 3 to 5 business days | Asset requirements, schedule complexity, workflows and approvals |
| More complex structured products | 1 to 2 weeks | Product complexity, approval workflows, integrations and additional requirements |
These are product configuration benchmarks for a properly parameterised Mizan environment. They are not full core implementation timelines. That distinction should remain clear whenever product launch speed forms part of a business case.
Questions to Ask Your Core Banking Vendor
If faster product launch matters to your institution, do not settle for a general claim that the platform is “configurable.”
Ask the vendor to demonstrate the process.
| Question | What You Are Trying to Understand |
|---|---|
| Can our product team configure Islamic products without code changes? | How dependent you will remain on the vendor or engineering team |
| Does the core already understand our required Islamic contract? | Whether configuration starts from the right product structure |
| What usually requires custom development? | Where timelines may expand |
| Can asset requirements sit inside the financing workflow? | Whether operations will need external workarounds |
| How does the platform validate transactions before posting? | Whether faster configuration weakens control |
| Can we see the full configuration and approval process in a demo? | Whether the claimed launch speed reflects the actual workflow |
| What does the benchmark include and exclude? | Whether the vendor is describing configuration, testing or full implementation |
This gives CIOs, product leaders and operations teams a much clearer basis for comparison.
How Mizan Helps Banks Move Faster
We designed Mizan around the way Islamic and non-interest financial institutions actually create and run products.
The system supports Islamic finance structures such as Murabaha, Ijara, Mudarabah, Musharakah, Istisna and Qard Hassan as native product types. Contract mapping starts during product creation, while the financing, asset, profit distribution, ledger and audit capabilities provide the surrounding operating structure.
That foundation is what makes our configuration benchmarks possible. Banks can focus more of their effort on defining the product they want to take to market instead of repeatedly rebuilding the banking logic underneath it.
For institutions currently relying on a conventional core, this is also why the core architecture deserves attention when product launches consistently take longer than the business expects.
Product Launch Speed Starts With the Core
How long should it take to launch an Islamic banking product?
There is no single answer for every bank. Product complexity, approvals, integrations and testing will always affect the final timeline. However, configuring the product itself should not become a prolonged technology project simply because the core does not understand Islamic finance.
With proper parameterisation in Mizan, our benchmark is 1 to 3 business days for a basic Murabaha product, 3 to 5 business days for Ijara with asset tracking and schedule customisation, and 1 to 2 weeks for more complex structured products including approval workflows.
Those benchmarks provide a useful comparison point for banks reviewing their current product development process. If your institution regularly spends weeks or months configuring Islamic products, it is worth examining where the time actually goes. The bottleneck may sit deeper than the product team.
For the broader infrastructure question, read our guide on why Islamic banks need a purpose-built Islamic core banking system.
You can also book a session with our Mizan experts to walk through your product requirements and see how Mizan approaches Islamic product configuration in practice.
