HOW DOES ZAKAT INSTITUTION RESPOND TO FINTECH? EVIDENCE FROM BAZNAS, INDONESIA

The notion of Zakat and financial technology or fintech has been gaining significant attention from academics, industry professionals and other related stakeholders. However, the existing scholarly studies on this topic have massively explained its related theoretical issues and have not discussed technical understanding in what way a Zakat institution has been responding to the emergence of fintech. From this gap, the present paper sets out to study the degree to which a Zakat institution has been adapting the unstoppable advent of fintech. In doing so, this work selects an Indonesian Zakat institution which is BAZNAS for further studying the topic. This paper employs a qualitative method of overviewing the recent management of Zakat in BAZNAS. With performing so, this work finds that BAZNAS has been developing its online platform along with its mobile-based application. In addition, the institution also has been collaborating with the existing fintech firms for payment services and issuing quick respond (QR) code, in which these efforts aim at collecting Zakat funds. These findings suggest the way the reviewed institution has been adapting to the rise of fintech. This is the first study to make clear the understanding of the means a Zakat institution responds to the recent technological changes. The discussion of this work is relevant to academics, industry professionals, and other Zakat stakeholders.