Juridical Study on the Optimization of Cash Waqf Management by Islamic Banking in Indonesia

Cash waqf is an innovative instrument of waqf aiming to create social welfare. It is expected that cash waqf enables extensive public participation to support social welfare. However, in reality, cash waqf management in Indonesia has not yet resulted optimal benefit. Based on the Law Number 41 of 2004 on Waqf, three institutions carry out cash waqf management. They are the Indonesian Waqf Board as the collector and the developer, Nazhir as the manager, and the Islamic Financial Institution as the collector. The three institutions make the cash waqf management and development ineffective and not optimal. Based on the data from the Indonesian Waqf Board, of the total potential cash waqf IDR180 Trillion, only IDR400 billion was realized. This study is a normative juridical legal study employing descriptive method. The results reveal that the role of the Islamic Financial Institution, Islamic bank, as collector can actually be expanded. Thus, it covers the management and distribution roles like a Waqf Bank in Bangladesh, the Social Islami Bank Ltd. (formerly known as Social Investment Bank Ltd). Islamic bank has capability and professionalism of management and distribution of funds generated from the cash waqf.