Indonesia is seeking to further develop its Islamic banking sector, looking to tap into the growing market for sharia-compliant financial instruments, though it still has some way to go before being able to match the major players in the segment. In late January, Bank Indonesia officials laid out their plans and projections for the coming year, including a four-point program to strengthen the country's banking sector and promote growth across the economy. Along with initiatives to enhance banking resilience, reinforce the supervisory regime, build a better platform for bank intermediation through the improvement of regulation, develop and strengthen rural banks' roles in micro-finance, there was also the key objective of raising the profile of Islamic banking in the economy. Currently, Islamic banking assets represent only a fraction of the total within the country's banki...