A Brief about Emirates NBD KSA Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee (ISSC) Brief

A brief about the Emirates NBD

Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee

Members of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee

The Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee is formed by:

Dr. Mohamed Ali Elgari

Dr. Elgari was a Former Professor of Islamic Economic at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Former Director of the Center for Research in Islamic Economics, in the same university. He is an Expert at the Islamic Jurisprudence Academy of the OIC and the Islamic Jurisprudence Academy of the Islamic World League and a member of the Board of Trustees of AAOFI as well as their sharia counsel. He is member of editorial board of several academic publications in the field of Islamic Finance and Jurisprudence.

Dr. Elgari is chairman and member of numerous Shariah Boards of Islamic Banks and Takaful Companies worldwide. He authored several books in Islamic finance and published tens of articles on the subject both in Arabic and English. Dr. Elgari is also a frequent speaker in conferences worldwide. Dr. Elgari holds a PhD from the University of California.

Dr. Mohammad Abdul Rahim Sultan Al Olama

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Rahim Sultan Al-Olama is a professor of jurisprudence and its fundamentals at the College of Law at the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, in addition of being a certified expert in financial affairs that compliance with Islamic Sharia principals, and he leads the Sharia committee in the Zakat Fund in the United Arab Emirates.

PH. Dr. has published books and articles on various jurisprudential topics, particularly Islamic banking in its contemporary form. He has also presented a series of research papers in various international forums and conferences related to this sector. He is a member of a number of fatwa and sharia supervisory boards for Islamic financial institutions and takaful companies. These include: Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, Takaful House and Mawarid Finance Company.

PH. Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rahim holds a PhD in Comparative Islamic Jurisprudence from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah Al-Mukarramah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Salim Ali Al-Ali

Dr. Salim Ali Al-Ali is an assistant professor at the Department of Sharia and Islamic Studies at the College of Law at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) where he teaches a spectrum of courses related to Islamic law and Islamic banking. He was educated at the United Kingdom, where he had received his PhD from University of London. Dr. Al-Ali was also a part-time lecturer for the LLM program at the BPP Law School, BPP University based in London, where he lectured on a broad spectrum of jurisprudence including Islamic, English, and comparative laws. Apart from his academic experience, he is a member of the internal sharia supervision committee for a number of institutions offering Islamic financial services including HSBC, Abu Dhabi First Bank and Emirates NBD. He participated in a number of international conferences on various issues pertaining to the law of Islamic finance, Islamic financial products and legal and regulatory aspects of developing Islamic financial markets, including those held by Harvard University and University of Cambridge. He is the author of the book entitled ‘Raising capital on sukuk markets: structural, legal and regulatory issues’.

Duties of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee

Review the structure of Islamic products, related documents, records, contracts, agreements, forms, and opinion and recommend amendments if any.
Contribute to the innovation and development of products in light of the provisions of Shariah and in accordance with best International practices.
Set framework for Islamic products, dividend / income purification and past due penalties (monitor spending of such amounts to charity).
Adopting the Shariah Supervisory Program, and considering the reports of the Shariah Supervisory, and issuing the necessary provisions (Shariah Audit).

Powers of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee

The right to access all the Bank's operations related to offering Shariah products and services, to identify other Shariah alternatives to ensure that they comply with the provisions of Shariah.
The right of communication and direct communication with the concerned parties in the Bank, in order to facilitate the functioning of the Unified Shariah Board, and in case of non-response, direct contact with the concerned authorities.
The Bank may not provide financial or investment services in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic Shariah, or offer Islamic products or contracts, except after submitting them to the Unified Shariah Board and taking their approval in the manner mentioned in these Regulations.
All directives and Fatwas issued by the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee shall be binding and enforceable by the relevant departments of the Bank. Other Departments to provide necessary supporting to implement this.

Decisions of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee

The Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee shall issue its decisions or recommendations in the proceedings before it. The decision shall include a summary of the subject presented, and the final outcome of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee, together with evidence, reasons and supporters.
Decisions of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee are binding on the Bank by its Board of Directors, its Executive Management and its staff, and are deemed to be enforceable from the date on which the Bank is notified.

Islamic Banking Department

The Islamic Banking Department is a subsidiary of the Wholesales Banking Group, which supports the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee in achieving its objectives and performance, and It contains the following sections:

Shariah Governance and Shariah Risk Section
- Shariah Governance Section
  
  This Section seeks to:
  - Prepare and review the internal policies and procedures for the Islamic banking Department in accordance with Shariah Regulations.
  - Prepare researches and studies; participate in seminars, panel discussions in the field of Islamic banking, and customer awareness.
  - To ensure Shariah quality
  - To carry out the work of the secretariat of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee. These works include:
    - Coordinating to arranging the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee meeting.
    - Prepare the cases for presentation to the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee.
    - Provide clarifications to the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee Members queries.
    - Preparing minutes of the meeting and getting them signed off by the participants.
    - File, classify, index, facilitate the use of them, and inform the decisions and guidance of the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee to the concerned parties in the Bank.
- Shariah Audit & Risk Section
  
  This Section seeks to:
  - To ensure Shariah approval for all product or service is available prior to offering the same to customers.
  - Ensure compliance with the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee resolutions and guidelines, reviews the documents, contracts, and agreements signed by the customers.
  - Prepare checklists and conduct Shariah audit.
  - To discuss the Shariah audit observations and propose appropriate solutions to avoid those observations, in cooperation with the relevant departments of the Bank.
  - Prepare final audit report and present it to the Internal Sharia Supervisory Committee for their sign-off and comments.
Products and Business Support Section

This Section seeks to:
- To the develop Shariah Compliant products to meet market and customer needs, be consistent with the objectives of the Islamic economy and comply with regulatory directives.
- To carry out awareness and training.
- Identify the opportunities to offer Islamic products to existing and new Relationships of Bank with aim to grow revenues from these products.
- Market new Islamic banking customer to enhance the Islamic banking portfolio.
- Visits customers with business teams in order to understand the needs of the customer with regard to Islamic products and communicate the same to all stakeholders.
- Liaise with all the internal stakeholders to structure and implement all Islamic products properly in bank core system and Prepare NPPA for new products.
- Interact with all stakeholders to ensure smooth operations and resolve any operational issues.