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According to Imaniyati (2015), sharia banks
provide some services to support the implementation
of national development to improve justice,
togetherness, and equity of the people’s welfare. As
intermediary agent, banking service provider does
not violate sharia, monetary policy transmission
instrument, fund or investment manager, and social
function manager (ZISWA). Operationally, in Law
No.21 Year 2008, the functions of sharia banking
(BUS and UUS) are (1) to collect and distribute
public funds, (2) to perform social functions in
baitul mal institutions that receive funds from zakat,
infak, alms, grants, or other social funds and
distribute them to zakat organizations, (3) to collect
funds from wakaf and distribute it to wakaf
managers (nazhir) in accordance with wakaf (wakif)
willingness. The social functions implementation in
paragraph (2) and (3) are corresponding to the
provisions of legislation.
As the executor of social activities, sharia bank
performs social activities by prioritizing justice,
prosperity, and economic equality regularly to
encourage the growth of sharia entrepreneurs from
micro to macro level, while conventional bank
engages these activities not periodically. Besides
that, halal promotion, business unit establishment,
and income opportunities increase investment
because of transparent and equitable benefits. These
activities are supported by sharia banking legal such
as Law No. 21 Year 2008 for PT to distribute funds
for social activities and PBI No. 17 Year 2017 that
requires sharia bank to distribute financing at least
20% in stages.
3.2 The Function of Sharia Banking as
a Social Intermediation Institution
The fundamental differences between sharia and
conventional banking is not only in business
practices but also on the values that are not only
expressed in the transaction activity to achieve the
halal transaction (sharia compliance), but also
much more broadly than the role of sharia banking
for the community as a manifestation of the wealth
of Islamic values and commitment to the issues.
Acoording to Nurhasanah (2015), as collectors and
distributors of public funds (financial intermediary),
sharia banking needs to facilitate the wheels of
community economy and carry out business
(tijarah) regulated in the provisions of article 4
paragraph (1) of Law No.21 Year 2008. Its religious
functions are regulated in the provisions of Article 4
paragraph (2), (3), and (4) of the same Law.
In performing business functions, sharia banking
also performs a social function (tabarru’) in the
form of baitulmaal institution which has the same
distribution with its function above. Based on
Article 4 paragraph (2) of Law No.21 Year 2008,
sharia banking also collect other social funds, such
as bank receipts from the imposition of sanctions
against customers (ta’zir). Thus, the status of Sharia
Bank and UUS, besides being profit-seeking
company, is also as a social body in the community
that needs many strategies that are easily understood
by the community to achieve the goal of economic
empowerment (Usman, 2012).
According to Bennett in Antonio (2013), social
intermediation is an investment process formed by
development of human capital and financial
institutions aimed at increasing the poor’s
confidence as a preparation for them to use formal
intermediation. The empowerment of groups
through the provision of social services consisted of
mentoring, training and enhancing skills, insight,
financial literacy, and technological introduction.
This activity has been regulated in BI Regulation
No.17 Year 2017 regarding changes in credit and
microfinance to provide coaching and mentoring if
they cannot meet targeted percentage of their
financing distribution.
In implementing micro credit service program,
sharia bank organizes the poor into its borrowers in
small groups to strengthen them having the capacity
in planning and making decision as media liaison
with branch offices where sharia bank field officers
must attend group meetings every week. Micro
financing distribution are more profitable because of
stronger resilience than non UMKM in sharia
banking industry (Wulandari, 2012). Besides that,
not all BUS, BPRS, and UUS distribute
microfinance. By the end of September 2012, it was
recorded that the distribution of sharia financing in
micro, small, and middle enterprises (UMKM)
reached 70% of the total financing or about IDR 58
trillion (Amah, 2013). According to Wulandari
(2012), only a few banks such as BTPN Sharia, BRI
Sharia, and BSM disbursed microfinance.
In general, sharia economic and financial
institution distributed micro finance through: (1)
sharia cooperative/BaitulMaal wat Tamwil (BMT)
with a significant spearhead of micro community
empowerment, remarkable growth especially in the
last two decades, and development about tens and
hundreds billions rupiahs (Antonio, 2013; Jaenal
2010), (2) zakat, infaq, alms, and wakaf (ZISWAF)
in which the proportion of mustahikmicrofinance in
economic programs are distributed by accredited
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