Today’s startups want to get things done faster than ever, whether they’re opening bank accounts or obtaining business credit cards or making cross-border payments. But imagine what potential can be unleashed if such businesses also had access to Shari’a compliant financial solutions.

Well, it’s time to find out!

Over the past four years, Silicon Valley based Tribal Credit, has been working hard to make startup experiences simpler, safer, and more consistent. And now they’re investing in attaining Sharia compliance for their most ambitious proprietary technology release yet. Headquartered in the US and with presence in more than 21 countries, they’re working to evolve their credit and expense management program with smart Sharia compliant opportunities. Through nationwide collaboration with merchant banks and card network, Tribal will integrate its leading services to provide unique features that meet the varying needs of both Islamic investors and startups.

We’ve been collaborating with Tribal Credit to review their comprehensive solution — which includes Tribal Wallet, Fund depository agreement, Visa card scheme network arrangements, expense management program and merchant bank agreements — to address the Shari’a compliant requirements.

We’re proud to be working closely with Tribal Credit reviewing their design, development, and launch of the fund and credit management integration. We can’t wait to see all of the creative ways you can use their solutions to power-up, grow and scale your business. In the meantime, we’ll continue ensuring your transactions remain Sharia compliant and receive the best experience possible—for you and your startup!

Imagine a digital sukuk that’s just right for your business.

Earlier this month, we started working with Mudaraba Financial Company, a CMA licensed digital platform which helps connect Sukuks to your business. Since then, the first Mudaraba powered Sukuk has been structured, financiers have already started to underwrite the structure and new enhanced modalities are being explored in the pipeline. Their platform is built around technology that helps your business digitally create a Sukuk and raise capital.

We’ve reviewed their Wakala structure, SPV establishment arrangements, Mudarabah terms and offering provisions.  They’re built to work together, so they do—seamlessly, across all domains of the sukuk – uniting great Sharia compliant opportunities with businesses. During our reviews, we also realized that their digital sukuk is built for business sake, rather than its own sake. Coming throughout the rest of the years, we’ll be working with them to develop and supervise new modalities with different investment structures, styles and opportunities that will help businesses get even more out of a sukuk.

Whether it’s helping you get directions with raising capital or letting you connect with investors, chances are with this new platform there is a digital sukuk that’s just right for your business!

Today’s investors are accessing opportunities from a broad variety of sources with more impact than ever before. To be successful, platforms need to go beyond equity and debt in providing investments that matter.

That’s the inspiration behind QuantDART – a digital asset management company regulated by Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA)!

With digital investment products issued and rolled out with trading and custodial services, these assets can be traded by investors in Kazakhstan and beyond. At the heart of this strategy is a simple belief that access to growing cryptos and digital assets should be easier, better priced and more readily available. This is why we’re excited to announce the Sharia certification of their Islamic platform. We’ve been obsessively at work studying their supplier, custodian agreements and examining brokerage and transfer structures of the digital assets. We’ve also reviewed their wallet management processes, technology, agency and transactional connectivity so as to better understand how they trade, hold and help investors to connect, grow, and meet their financial goals. Now as part of our supervision we’ll manage their Shari’a compliance as they seek to serve faith-based investors through a resourceful and easy experience.

We hope our efforts to create and maintain new sources of Sharia compliant assets will provide investors access to new opportunities!

Today, Islamic financial companies and consumers are all seeking ways to accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon energy future. They all want to deal with Sharia compliant products but also want to understand the environmental impact of their transactions and benefits of the entire value chain.

While there are organizations across a variety of industries who have developed approaches to help consumers understand the environmental effects but Sweden based Doconomy believes it’s Åland Index Solutions has a unique opportunity to make a powerful impact. Used by 60 million customers globally, the Index helps track the CO2 emission and water footprint of every transaction you make. Their tool allows you to quantify and measure the impact of your consumption by connecting your spending patterns with climate impact. This approach provides you an innovative experience for everyday climate action!

We have been engaged as the Sharia Advisor to the Index to help ensure that its methodology, design, UNFCCC projects and datasets are consistent with Sharia principles. In developing the Sharia compliance approach we’ve leveraged our review on the index composition, industrial breakdown and measurements of emissions including their calculation and quantification models for both carbon and water footprints. As the effects of climate change continue to emerge, we believe the Index and its datasets will continue to evolve and so will our Sharia assurance framework.

Tackling global challenges takes time but we hope Islamic financial institutions and consumers will explore the adoption of this Index and help accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon energy future!

The future of payment solution businesses will need greater capabilities, and innovative services to compete and achieve profitable growth. Likewise, it will have to open up and expand its offerings in future growth markets and industries. The Islamic financial sector of the GCC is without doubt one such growth market…  and tapping this market is the aspiration of tabby!

To illuminate the landscape of Sharia compliant offerings in the region, tabby, one of the leading ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ provider in MENA, is expanding its payment solutions to Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar after its success in UAE and KSA. With a vibrant community of +3000 businesses and +400,000 active users, tabby offers its flexible, frictionless and cashless payment solutions to merchants and shoppers built around the ‘BNPL’ model.

Today, we are excited to announce that tabby has completed the Sharia certification for its payment plans and we will now be auditing their solutions to ensure interest free transactions are executed as per the Sharia principles.

We are thrilled to provide you Sharia assurance and remain committed to innovation for more capabilities in the future of payment solution businesses.

The future of mobile banking is exciting! Nearly everything is done on our phones today, but for many, the way they engage with an Islamic bank remains unchanged. That’s why we’re working with Jingle Pay, a NEO bank on a quest to provide its users an inspiring digital experience! With modalities of Sharia compliance integrated into their peer-to-peer transfer, international remittances, multicurrency payments its users will have banking at their finger-tips. Their app is a mobile-first, social NEO-bank designed around financial inclusion and incorporates a range of features such as spend categorization, P2P payments, bill splitting functionality, and budgeting tools to help you save money.

We’ve been working with Jingle Pay’s examining their mobile application, product setup and business operations. We’ve reviewed their contracts, and custodian agreements with depository institutions – including a series of binding commitments with partner banks, money exchanges and card scheme provisions. We’ve also studied their POS access, custodian agreements that interoperate with depository institutions. These operations will continue to be supervised through our Sharia audit so that you can be assured that Jingle Pay is living up to its commitments on Sharia compliance.

So that’s the new Jingle Pay—we hope their differentiated capabilities guided by our Sharia advisory services marks a big step in delivering an exciting future of mobile banking!

Smartphones have revolutionized the way we communicate and access information. Businesses that once were only possible face-to-face can now take place instantaneously. One significant and special moment is being created by Tamam Financing company – a fintech that is scaling-up the micro-finance business with its renewed Tamam App.

Today, we’ve completed our certification of Tamam’s micro-lending app which is built entirely out of existing mobile technologies and aims to dramatically scale-up mobile based lending in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As their Shari’a Advisor, we’ll now supervise the financing process and also ensure sharia compliance with respect to important elements of purchase, entitlement and sale of commodity trade. We hope our engagement simplifies and streamlines the micro-lending facility, as we work with Tamam Finance Company to certify and supervise more product features focused on mobile financing.

A fresh new trend in micro-finance is underway, and we’re excited to be a part of this smartphone revolution!

Our goal has always been to certify products that are simple, helpful, and more importantly ethical.

That’s the inspiration behind our first engagement in New Zealand with EFCO Limited. It is the only finance company in the country providing non-interest-based solutions that are also affordable and accessible to individuals and businesses. The asset and debt-based financing products are guided by both ethical rules and principles of Sharia compliance. They have worked hard to capture the niche market of underbanked clients and is now emerging as a mainstream financier with ultra-ethical solutions. We’ve already started to review the credit facility documents, and getting a better understanding of the Consumer Finance Act 2003 of New Zealand while exploring options to construct a Commodity Murabaha process. Making Sharia controls consistent across the products will help the implementation of products more easier, and we hope, even simpler to use.

We hope EFCO’s customers will have the opportunity to experience the new wave of Sharia compliance that is redefining finance in many countries around the world. We couldn’t be more excited to embark on this journey in New Zealand and help supervise products that are not only Sharia compliant but also simple, helpful and ethical.

Thank you for continuing to share this journey with us as we continue to progress towards our goal!

Promoting a financial system that is fair without the use of usury or interest. Generating double digit annualized returns based on ethical principles. Developing new cycles of charitable growth by giving 50% of performance fees to charity. This is just a few of the big ideas that UAE—based Shukr Investments is aiming to achieve.

Today, we’ve joined forces with Shukr to supervise their flagship strategy, the Shukr Global Equity Fund, which combines Sharia-based investing with ESG principles. Ranked by Bloomberg* in the top 1% of all offshore public equity funds, Shukr attributes its success to being grateful for God’s blessings—which is why the firm donates a significant portion of its fees to charitable causes.

Our objective is to ensure their investments and charitable activities comply with Sharia principles. This includes assembling the scholars for Shukr Investments’ Shariah board, ensuring their public equity investments comply with Sharia principles, overseeing their purification calculations, auditing their activities and approving the charities Shukr donates to.

When creative institutions join socially-conscious Islamic investors, new ideas will be brought to life, and big things will happen!

So, best of luck to Shukr for the years to come!

This morning, we announced the certification of Tezos, open-source platform for the digitalization of assets. With recession resistant abilities to design smart contracts that allow businesses, fund managers and banks to build Sharia compliant assets – it’s now time to fill you in on what we’ve been working recently, and how we’re tackling the future of decentralized peer-to-peer networks with Sharia compliance.

Enter the Tezos protocol, a blockchain which has the ability to host digital asset class that we hope will move the Islamic industry forward. The protocol’s on-chain governance system, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm, and ability to facilitate formal verification of smart contracts, makes Tezos an ideal long-term solution for high-value financial applications such as digital securities. We’ve previewed and certified all features related to the protocol so as to ensure the platform is compliant to Sharia principles.

From our earliest days of advisory, our aim has always been to build and support innovative asset classes for everyone, applying unique Sharia insights to help clients tackle big problems. That’s just as relevant in today’s decentralized digital world. We believe by providing platforms like Tezos open-ended Sharia consultation, they can innovate, and reach companies around the world and put the power of Sharia compliance in their hands—no matter what investment objectives they have, where they are based or who they are.

So here’s to the Tezos digital asset class revolution. We can’t wait to see what comes next!

The future of employee engagement may well lie in managing the financial wellness of employees. The ability to integrate technology with smart income concepts that gives employees a degree of flexibility in receiving their earned salaries and commissions whenever needed will help companies increase productivity, boost retention, and remove workload from human resources teams.

That’s why today, we’re unveiling our latest Sharia advisory engagement—one that gives voice to the pay frequency problem and offers access to income that has already been earned, anytime, instantly. It’s called FlexxPay. With an instant and dynamic income payment platform, this cloud-based solution models around assisting your company’s biggest asset … your employees! To help them attain Sharia compliance we started our review process with the entry point of the SaaS terms and facilities management for both companies and employees. Other factors for certification included banking facility image, advance payment terms, re-imbursement policies, and transfer fees. With an entrepreneurial spirit we now look forward to auditing FlexxPay to ensure the financial security at the heart of this technology remains Sharia compliant.

We hope our engagement with FlexxPay helps capture new income programs focused on uplifting the future of employees!

Since the dawn of robo-advisory, only a few thousand people have experienced Sharia compliant low-cost equity investments firsthand. But there have been moments that captured the investor’s imagination and challenged the high fee-bound perspective. Of the many endeavors that made headlines, one of the most prolific firms has been Wahed Invest, with its Head Quarters in New York.

Wahed has been successful in creating a reliable, transparent, and most importantly, accessible retail instrument of all time. The data they collect has deepened understanding of Sharia compliant investment universe—from the edge of Brazil to the border of Australia—and the accessibility provided has brought the startling experience of low-cost equities to Islamic retail investors around the world. Today, on the 5th anniversary of Wahed’s launch, they’ve teamed up with us to manage their Sharia compliance like never before. We’ve been assigned to supervise their client investment agreements, equity universe, ETF’s, Islamic index funds, and virtual advisory terms.

As we enter a new era of low-cost Halal investments —we hope Wahed’s efforts and our Sharia supervisory role demonstrates the remarkable progress robo-advisory is making toward unlocking opportunities for retail investors, and how much farther we can go together.

Now that you’re better informed on how Wahed can help unlock new opportunities, get out there and experience the new dawn of low-cost investments yourself!

Whether it’s buying digital assets, exchanging fiat classes with cryptos, or trading tokens, the CoinMENA team has been mastering this process to help you buy, sell and hold digital assets in a faster and simpler way.

CoinMENA helps you trade digital assets using local currency through specialized apps and systems. Some functions such as overlay withdrawals, for both fiat and digital currencies, are manually processed for compliance while suspicious activities are halted and flagged to the regulatory body. Today they’ve taken the next step by getting their assets and trading services certified by us in light of Sharia principles. We are thrilled to have studied their systems and trading methodology to help them attain Sharia compliance. For us, the most significant aspect of their platform isn’t just an “expert” system built with hand-crafted rules; instead it uses advance digital techniques to make the brokerage and custodian facility easier for the end-user.

So, whether you’re experimenting, professionally trading, or arbitrating digital tokens, CoinMENA can help make your experience faster, simpler, and easier.

Algorand is a ground breaking blockchain with the power to settle transactions in a few seconds…one that is publicly available for anyone to audit, use, and build their transactions upon.

Today, they are celebrating our certification of their Dutch auctioning mechanism and consensus algorithm. Our approval will allow entrepreneurs, small businesses and large banks seeking applications that are compliant with Sharia finance guidelines to celebrate the platform together by developing new products across this canvas. But the celebration doesn’t end there. While the platform processes its algorithmic smart-contracts on who owns which digital assets in a faster, cheaper and easier way. What truly sets Algorand apart is its ability to allow individuals to create, build and grow new ecosystems based on ownership records made public by the blockchain. Simply put, you can create your own applications that are compliant with Sharia finance guidelines side-by-side with others from around the world in this permissionless blockchain.

We want to inspire a new generation of individuals and institutions around the world to think and design investment solutions in a manner that is compliant with Sharia finance guidelines to help unlock new business opportunities that did not exist before. We’re excited to be able to extend the celebration and give you a new way to share your ideas.

The best way to experience this canvas is to discover it for yourself.

Hope to see you at Algorand!

The growth of sustainable P2P financing has brought this crowd-funding technology at the core of a financial revolution. Not surprisingly, these platforms have fast become a source of highly attractive long-term revenues. It’s with this in mind that Raqamyah is helping Islamic funders capture this opportunity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Here’s what they are planning to do.

They’re securing the financial technology that can help bring funding solutions to SMEs directly from funders. The platform will act as an intermediary providing an online marketplace to the Peer to Peer participants looking for sustainable funding criteria. By managing rich specialized SME assets with large-scale opportunities via its algorithmic based credit assessment and risk profiling techniques, Raqamyah is seeking to help both parties at the end of the capital spectrum create an ambient experience. Progress in all areas of development is accelerating, and we are at a seminal moment of certifying this inspiring platform.

Today, more and more institutions and governments are realizing the value of P2P asset classes. The opportunities are even greater when we harness the powers of Commodity Murabaha to make them available to the broader community of Sharia compliant funders. Imagine what we could do if we work together and use this asset class to expand cost-effective FinTech solutions to SME’s worldwide!

Soon, the spin-off effects will appear on the horizon, and we hope to bring this revolution to more funding’s around the world!

Financial assets big and small, simple and complex, equitable and debt-inducing, have all started out as ideas. With the introduction of assets like cryptocurrencies, businesses are seeking regulated enterprises as a critical step towards customer engagement. Downloading unregulated apps sometimes means sourcing the buy, sell and store of your digital currencies from multiple locations—not all of them trusted. But a digital exchange regulated by a central authority can change the game!

RAIN – the first digital exchange of its kind in GCC – has built a crypto-trading platform that makes it easier for customers to buy, sell and trade Bitcoin along with other digital assets. To win global support for its ownership, security and trust they’ve got themselves regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain; with further follow-ups to regional jurisdiction compliances. That’s why we’re thrilled to be working with them as their Sharia Advisor. By combining RAIN’s mobility, brokerage and custodian tools with our supervisory assurance, we’re creating one place to trade, save and manage your financial digital assets – in a Sharia compliant way!

Working with RAIN, our goal is to help individuals, enterprises and family offices easily trade on a regulated and Sharia compliant crypto-exchange and streamline the purchase, entitlement and sale of these assets. We hope this collaboration simplifies crypto-management for you and helps unlock additional financial value.

Ready to kick things off? You can jump right over to RAIN’s app and start trading financial assets for yourself.

The history of real-estate investments is global. But until recently, the act of tokenizing these investments into digital assets has been limited in scale. But with EIT Investments, it’s soon going to be just a few clicks away. Today, they received the Sharia Certification for their luxury hotel real-estate program and they are now developing the Tokenization of their first 20 investments in hotels so that you can buy their digital artifacts no matter where you are.

EIT’s block-chain technology will allow you to digitally securitize your investments in the famous suites and grand rooms of luxury hotel real-estates from Palazzo Versace Dubai, to Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster to The Dolder Grand in Switzerland.. From asset backed sales to secured rental yields, we expect, EIT’s Tokens to help reach new investors and inspire them with digital assets. And the possibilities will keep expanding with the addition of newer exchanges which allow the sale of such Tokens on secondary e-markets.

Digitalized Tokens will never replace the real thing. But block-chain technology will open up new application of investments to everyone, and to offer such opportunities in a Sharia compliant manner, we think is a powerful thing. We hope you get a chance to explore the diverse heritage of hotel investment in Sharia compliant Tokenized way!

Tokenizing oil reserves is well positioned for shaping the future of investments. Today, blockchain applications not only allow the transfer of price for physical reserves as digital rights with investment grade value. But the crypto-economic model can also give us a chance to help preserve our world’s undeveloped oil by monetizing its supply.

In an exciting new project certified by us today, we’ve partnered with PermainChain to bring you a Sharia compliant crypto asset-class, the Permian Token — backed by the price of proven oil reserves around the world. Our Sharia advisory work became a means of expression and activism against the “front-end fee” structure which plagues the world of oil investments. We see the ability to directly crowdfund equity solutions for oil exploration & production companies and help them meet working capital requirements using blockchain as a wealth preservation opportunity for Islamic investors. The project is also designed to reduce the broker-fee culture, fraud, error, and otherwise compromised transactions.

Permian Token is a chance to break out from the traditional way of investing in oilfields and redesigning the model for the future – and the U.S. oil market will be its first gateway with plans underway for full-scale global expansion.

We can’t predict the kinds of opportunities such Tokenization projects might showcase few years from now, but we do know the contribution of Permian Token will unlock a wealth of potential for investors in the oil market of the future!

The beauty and power of Sukuk lives in the details. You can only fully appreciate the genius of these structures when you get a chance to work closely in bringing the masterpiece together. But as you step back, you wonder how effective and costly is it to make the complex technical parties work together. You need time, specialized banking institutions and expensive lawyers, and only few entities in the region can do the job. But all that is about to change!

Wethaq is an automated application, custom-built to help companies create, issue and settle Sukuks faster and more easily. A proprietary platform system steers the information automatically from detail to detail, taking key information on the underlying investment. To make sure the focus is right, the application is equipped with smart contracts and settlement framework which helps remove the need for traditional custodians to measure the payments against the units. Once each detail is captured, the hyper-ledger takes all the information, like a jigsaw, stitches the protocol together into one single Sukuk.

Looking to the future, Wethaq has taken a big step to reduce the impact of multi-party functions such as custodians, registrars and issuers. Today, they’re taking the next step by assigning us as their Sharia Advisor to ensure that its Sukuk documents, blockchain protocol, and settlement framework are Sharia compliant.

With a Wethaq-enabled platform, you’ll be able to issue, list, settle and purchase a Sukuk with a software in your laptop. The best part is that you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands in setting up and bringing together the different parties. In the future, we hope Wethaq can help you navigate all the above and more, with an app in your pocket. The implications for their victory are, literally, game changing—and the ultimate winner will be the investors.

We hope  you’ll love experiencing the digital Sukuk masterpiece in close detail!

We’ve always aimed to build products that improve investment opportunities for as many people as possible. For example, few months back we introduced the first Sharia compliant blockchain Protocol which allowed users to experience the movement of money quickly, reliably, and at almost no cost. Since then everyone from blockchain lovers and cryptocurrencies issuers, to digital exchanges have been approaching us seeking Sharia compliance — often for the very first time.

One such entity inspiring to illuminate the world of ‘value preservation’ is Switzerland based X8 Currency. Their portfolio is driven by financial Artificial Intelligence (AI) which provides people with an easy Token artifact for their investments. Powered by advanced applications the portfolio works on a 100% asset backed reserves of eight major fiat currencies like US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar and gold coins. What we admire about X8 is that it has been built in direct response to conversations with Asset Managers seeking to preserve value and create price stability, as well as automated reserves and visibility metrics. Keep your eyes peeled as we help roll out the Sharia compliant version of X8 with creative, secure and stable experiences.

From initial coin offerings to finishing protocols, we help your products stay true to the pulse of your design. By staying focused on the needs, demands and wishes of the people and institutions for whom you’re developing the products.

We remain excited in inspiring the financial world and shaping new futures with Islamic products build for everyone!

Whether it’s repairing the screen of your mobile phone, replacing hunks of metal, or re-aligning its wires, millions of requests under repair warranty are made every day. But few people think about how the repair logistic agreements actually works. Because these contracts typically aren’t much to look at, people usually don’t learn about the incredible arrangements which make so much of modern day mobile devices repair possible.

To begin to change that, we signed up with CDP Holdings with a Sharia Advisory partnership to understand a bit of the magic from the inside of their warranty plans to the outside. So today, after having reviewed there protection program and processes, we’re certifying their plan, a different kind of Sharia compliant warranty with a new way of protection. Instead of insurance like connections, CDP will give you service based protection that’s fast, safe, and reliable.

We’re really excited to see how this plan can help reinvent repair warranties for smartphone brands and take the frustration out of repair and warranty together.

Here’s to CDP for bringing speed, security and Sharia compliance in the warranty you want, without the frustrations you don’t.

As a Sharia Advisor, it’s always humbling when you encounter a perfect investment opportunity. Shari’a compliant design attract our attention with its simplicity, is universally understood by investors, and does not sacrifice returns with large agency fees.

Today, Stellar gave us one such perfect piece – through its platform that connects banks, payments systems, and people. With a distributed network of global servers Stellar allows the movement of money quickly, reliably, and at almost no cost. It helps you create and design a new set of business environment through a specialized native asset known as Lumen. For example, Lumen can help your investment navigate from one side of the country to the other, transfer units with investors instantaneously, or even offer incremental payment options to customers. The best part is that you don’t have to pay huge sums to manage your accounts. You can visit the Sharia guidelines we designed for Stellar here.

We expect Stellar to become an international obsession in the Islamic financial markets.  All in all, we built our Shari’a Advisory platform to help make such amazing experiences possible in the Islamic industry, but the investments that you can build on Stellar is what will truly make Sharia compliance come alive.

We can’t wait to see what you will build on Stellar!

The future of savings may well lie in people creating, imagining and exploring their own opportunities with Islamic finance—and perhaps most important of all, having fun while making their plans! Over the years, we’ve worked closely with institutions to build programs through mutual funds, ETF’s, and even vertical farming with a very friendly touch. Today, we’re unveiling our latest engagement—one that gives voice to your retirement plans and transforms savings into the future. It’s called t’azur.

With t’azur, individuals and corporate firms can narrate their own savings and retirement adventures, make legacy pots, and build protection benefits. Their Takaful policies are like an investment engine but with enormous wealth of knowledge, expertise and a research lab of financial investments to help inspire your savings and protection. Our objective is to create a Shari’a Supervisory Board and manage their policy structuring, and Shari’a supervisory functions.

Whether you dream of leaving a professional legacy for your family, a private saver, or just want to explore the boundaries of Islamic financial protection. We hope t’azur will empower you to imagine, explore and re-invent your future. We’re delighted to be at the heart of this opportunity and look forward to working together with them to increase innovation in the Islamic insurance industry and shape its future.

For the last ten years, financial institutions in Saudi Arabia have been looking out for better Islamic refinancing opportunities in the Kingdom’s housing sector.

Today, opportunities to access liquidity and enhance balance sheet capacity got a little bit closer. Team SRC*, a team made of financial engineers, international consultants and lawyers, are working with us to secure Sharia compliant instruments for refinancing their mortgage portfolios. In one of the instruments we’ve designed jointly, SRC will hitch the portfolio of real-estate contracts using specially designed agreements for offloading existing portfolios; once the originator is released from ownership and associated risks a price will be paid to him for the asset, SRC will then retain the originator to navigate the servicing contracts with the lessees for a separate fee.

By freeing up the balance sheets of financial institutions, the newly designed Islamic refinancing instruments are expected to engage as catalysts of growth and stability for Islamic banks, mortgage finance companies and real-estate originators in the Kingdom – and by extension to the rest of the region.

So, congratulations to SRC for reaching this stage, and best of luck for the years to come!

*Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company

The best Sharia compliant investments are meant to just flow: you barely have to understand the structure, follow-up with anyone on the returns and get expert advice on the nature of risks involved. This is how the people behind OM African Agriculture Fund want to help investors stay in the moment, no matter what asset class they’re looking for or how they’re measuring Sharia risks. They’ve been hard at work on making this investment strategy faster, simpler, and easier for Islamic Investors.

We’ve been obsessively at work with their business team to make their Fund Sharia compliant and more reliable in its Islamic financial modality. And today, we’re releasing their Sharia Certificate, with a fresh new approach and features that make it even easier for Sharia compliant investor to understand the mechanism.

We hope you enjoy the new opportunity. And we look forward to keeping such investments flowing!

Every journey we take with our clients is unique. The products, services and business lines we certify and oversee tells us a great deal about who our clients are and what they care about.

One such inspiring client is BOK International who has recently outsourced its Sharia Advisory Committee to us. The Bank takes pride of 100 years of service to the people of Sudan with offices in 3 countries around the world. In a series of fascinating product reviews and investment certifications, we’re learning more about the origins of Islamic Financial movement in the country. We’re also beginning to see how they are customizing business lines in Bahrain to revitalize your Islamic banking experience. With trending insights in the world of wholesale banking BOKI is seeking to gain traction across the Kingdom, getting deeper into capabilities you truly care about and services that bring news businesses to life.

No matter what your business is, we hope you’ll explore the growing trend of outsourced Shari’a Advisory services and help shape the future of the field.

We are happy to have you continue to share this journey with us!

Every time certification of a product takes too long, institutions lose an investor — and the opportunity to earn revenue and loyalty of an exciting deal.

Today, after discussions with institutions and Islamic investment companies around the world, we’re announcing a new initiative called Sharia Express Service, which aims to turnaround you product review in as little as 2 hours. By creating a wide-network of 31 dedicated scholars from 16 countries a new open framework has been built, which allows your products to be reviewed instantaneously – no matter what type of fund, transaction or business line you may have. We’re hoping that this service will introduce change that can profoundly and affordably impact millions for the players of the Islamic industry making Sharia compliant investment opportunities quickly available for investors.

Historically, Islamic financial institutions have relied on traditional Sharia Board structures that were often expensive, over-stretched and limited to reviewing one or two specific transactions at a time. Over time we anticipate that Islamic financial institutions will integrate this service for their time-sensitive and critical transactions.

We hope the express service will speed-up the opportunities by ensuring products are reviewed and certified faster for everyone, everywhere.

It’s hard to think of a more important secondary source of capital in the world than the recent developments in Peer to Peer financing. At its best, the P2P is communicating power to the people, connecting businesses to societies, and allowing enterprises to create informed financial decisions. In the past decade, better technology and an open financial landscape has led to a revolution in how financing transactions are created, invested, and distributed. And given our mission to make Sharia Advisory services accessible and useful everywhere, we want to help ensure that this innovation leads and benefits the world of Islamic finance.

That’s why we’re working with Beehive P2P Ltd, in their new effort as a regulated entity at DFSA (Dubai Financial Service Authority) to empower financial innovation at the intersection of Sharia compliance and technology. We’re tackling this in three ways: by setting up a dedicated Sharia Board comprising of 3 scholars to meet DFSA’s regulatory requirements; by providing helpful Sharia review analysis in the hands of Beehive’s product development team; and through periodical Sharia Audits designed to ensure implementation of Sharia guidelines on some of the biggest opportunities that exist for Beehive’s Islamic Platform today.

We have worked with Beehive’s brilliant technology and platform that is spectacularly empowering the world of Islamic investment and businesses. We see their work as a global effort, with demand for their services in the GCC, Asia, Europe and beyond.

As the financing landscape continues to evolve, we believe we can create a more informed world of enterprises if technologists and financial institutes work together—and we at SRB are excited to be part of the effort.

When does the future begin? You may think it starts tomorrow, but for us it begins today! After all what happens tomorrow is built upon what we do today.

Since 2015, Taajeer has been preparing itself for a new world in which Islamic leasing, in whatever form, rapidly becomes the currency of choice. From enhancing competitiveness, to driving multiple models of rental programs, and, perhaps most critically, navigating through the economic structures of the machinery world of the Kingdom. Taajeer has been working hard to create immense value for customers and merchants by bringing them new, modern, enterprise-ready products.

We’ve recently signed-up with Taajeer to help bring their organization, brand and products in a Sharia compliant way into the 21st century.  Our engagement will repower an iconic segment of our markets and help shape the future of Islamic leasing.

Nowadays, Shari’a Advisory isn’t just a service useful for an Islamic financial company; Banking. Asset Management. Equipment Leasing. Payment Solutions. Sukuks. No matter what you dream of doing, our Shari’a support will help you get there. Your future — our future — is made with interactive Shari’a Advisory. Let’s do what we can to make sure that future is as bright as possible.

Let’s shape the future of Islamic finance, today!

All these amazing investment experiences in the Islamic markets are built around understanding what customers need and basic knowledge of Shari’a principles. However, there are many people and small businesses who still don’t have access to smart financial solutions. We always wanted to somehow change that; so today we are announcing an important initiative by Gulf Finance.

We’re working with them on a comprehensive leasing and financial solution — which includes Ijara management programs and SME  Asset financing platforms — to address the Shari’a compliant corporate and individual needs of the Saudi market. Gulf Finance will be providing smart programs that are high quality, business friendly, affordable and are in alignment with Islamic principles. They will launch an initial range of these products starting in the Kingdom this summer, with more offerings to follow soon.

With a new creative design, they’re working to evolve the multiple Islamic leasing platform so as to engage a new experience for the Shari’a compliant consumers. Through nationwide collaboration Gulf Finance will integrate its leading services to provide a comprehensive financing feature set that can be configured to meet the varying needs of the Kingdom’s SME’s and asset financing clients. We’re proud to be working closely with Gulf Finance reviewing their design, development, and launch of the Islamic leasing management program.

But, beyond the world of leasing businesses, many of you are increasingly surrounded by a range of investment ideas. Ideas with the ability to make a big impact in the Islamic industries. Opportunities that can create new Shari’a compliant possibilities. Something creative or imaginative that might just change the world of small and medium businesses around us.

We invite you to reach out  and share your exciting ideas with us. We can’t wait to hear from you!

You don’t need to look very far to see how Islamic finance changes the way businesses do things. Take the area of commercial Islamic leasing. Just think about how advancements in various facets of contract ownership, identification of risk-bearers, nature of assets, and key essentials of payments have significantly changed the way modern day companies experience their leasing arrangements.

The past few years have also seen widespread availability of mainstream Islamic leasing programs, previously only available in handful countries in Asia and the Middle East. Today, businesses have a wide-range choice of attractive, simple, and powerful schemes available in their local communities. Going forward, customers will be able to enjoy better experiences that combine traditional Ijara rulings with rich transactional connectivity. Equitable policies and integrated services will be the key to unifying and creating these new, more personalized, proficiencies for entities seeking value based transactions. Bringing this vision to life is the mission of the team at SK Leasing.

Their first major milestone is overcoming conventional complexities, Kazakhstani taxation laws and legal contractual requirements. This is something they are working with us on solving from a Sharia perspective. The second major focus will be steering their market initiatives and business-model opportunities in compliance with Islamic principles – transforming the company into the first Sharia compliant leasing company in the country. We expect the platform to become Kazakhstan’s leading provider of impactful solutions, enabling more than 3000 local customers and businesses to access sustainable, affordable and innovative products.

A leasing revolution is underway, where experiences of doing business in a Sharia compliant way is more personal than ever before. We’re excited to be a part of delivering these new and exciting trends.

The future of leasing starts today!

Every adventure starts somewhere, and our began on Tuesday, June 22, 2004, when we became the first institute in the world to offer Sharia Advisory services. Based out of Bahrain, we started to support investment companies and their products in ways that made Sharia Compliance very cool and easily accessible. Our casual setup suggested little of the international demand for our services that would follow over the subsequent decade. Today our services are delivered to clients in over 18 countries while in Saudi Arabia alone we serve 26% of the Investment Companies and 23% of the Insurance sector.

Yeah. We were surprised, too!

This year we are focusing on listed companies like Mouwasat delivering turn-by-turn quarterly Sharia reports that works with a unified certification connection, and makes it possible for huge organization like them to get faster-reviews and streamlined financial screening. We want to make sure that no matter what your company does on the stock exchange or where you are or how advanced your business model is … Shariyah Review Bureau works for you!

For us, Sharia Advisory is not about the transactions or the products we certify. Those aren’t the end-goals. Sharia Advisory is an ethical force, empowering institutions through the power of Islamic financial principles. Shariyah Review Bureau is an idea-generating company. It was when it was founded, and it is today. And it’s what companies do with those ideas that amazes and inspires us every day.

Thanks for a wild and inspiring 12 years!

We continue to dream big about forging new paths and ideas for the players of the Islamic industry. Focused on the excitement of new product developments, creative investment challenges and the joys of new engagements, we remain inspired about the future of our industry and how we can help entities dream big and invent new tomorrows.

Meet our latest engagement, Zaman Bank. An incredible institute seeking to transform into a fully fledged Islamic Retail Bank with a commitment to solving the biggest financial challenges of customers and societies in Kazakhstan. They have co-sourced the Sharia Board, Certification and developmental ideas to us — this helps encourage and speed up innovation in a sector that is majorly siloed.

Zaman Bank sets a target of providing alternative retail financial solutions for its customers in the Republic of Kazakhstan, bringing a history of 25 years of successful banking to more than 3 million potential customers. From designing new ways of retail Islamic banking products, to re-working the biggest corporate credit products, to spectacular new commodity brokerage services, Zaman Bank is seeking to deliver heartfelt experiences for customers from every angle.

The theme that connects all of our efforts, services, and solutions is our dream of improving corporate lives of our clients and making a better Islamic industry for the world. And we know that continuing to grow as a global Sharia Advisor depends on the care and growth of institutes like Zaman Bank.

We’ll continue working to realize that dream!

The power of every connection helps us to deliver long-term value and build broader, stronger and deeper relationships with your business. By paying attention and listening carefully to your challenges we’ve learned that fast and reliable connectivity for liquidity management is almost second nature to your financial business. But even in places like the GCC, where connections for treasury services are readily available, there are still times when you turn to your service provider and they don’t have fast enough Commodity Murabaha solutions. As your institutions continually expand, your connection to liquidity management programs will need to keep pace, be fast, easy to use, and accessible at all times.

That’s why today we’re excited to introduce our new UK based partner, Eiger Trading — a better, smarter platform that fuses physical commodities with everything you love about generating and managing liquidity electronically. Their program explores commodity facilitation opportunities with syndicated financing transactions by introducing seamless process experience. They have also taken a fresh approach to how you pay for asset facilitation requirements, automating your treasury services, and are always on hand when assistance is required. By assisting you with commodity acquisition for liquidity management, trade and transactional connectivity, we can more fully explore new ways for institutions to connect and grow. They have also pioneered the first 24/7 fully automated live retail platform interfacing with a client core banking systems and using locally based inventory and logistics chains.

Eiger Trading is the first smart platform that supports the Sharia requirements and structural support that works with our own services. By partnering with them, our aim is to put our clients and you on the best Murabaha facilitating network wherever you are. So if you’re looking at asset facilitation services, send an invite at [email protected] to get started.

We look forward to connecting!

Italian mini-bonds allow SMEs to access debt capital market and expand their investments. Similar instruments are available in other European countries like the UK, Germany, France and Norway. But what if you could explore them with a Sharia compliant touch?

With augmented returns and equity capabilities, you’ll soon be able to experience Islamic mini-bonds in a whole new way. Working with NCTM, an Italian law firm, we’ve built a listed structure, with an investment course that secures capital activity with profit sharing capabilities. By mapping future incomes of private companies, the Islamic mini-bond is expected to help investors build more efficient schedules and maximize returns.  NCTM, is releasing the Islamic mini-bonds today designed specifically for each sub-sector.

Sharia compliant investments are coming to places that you might not expect. From manufacturing companies and distributors to retailers and exporters, Italian companies will now be using the power of Sharia structures to create more visibility in entirely new business areas. This is just the beginning of how you’ll be able to use Islamic mini-bonds to help companies build businesses for the next generation.

With innovative Sharia features, we hope that businesses and investors will have a happy and productive return in the new Islamic mini-bond of Italy!

Every company has challenges and must find its own solutions. That is why we give our clients the chance to shape the future according to their own ideas. It’s with this in mind that we launched unlimited Consultation back in 2011— an opportunity for companies to explore possibilities in light of Sharia and create their own impact. This generational change enabled our customers and clients to move forward with new ideas and impulses.

Today, we’re headed across Italy supporting Nctm Studio Legale Associtao design an Italian Sharia compliant Mini-bond. Nctm has become a European leader in the growing world of ubiquitous legal advisory. We’re already working on this inspiring project, piloting new ways to improve the equity and debt access in line with the country’s regulation. For the first time, SME’s in Italy will be able to experience an “I bond” for their development and expansion programs —and help make their projects a reality. We believe our unlimited Sharia Consultation can help firms like Nctm make a difference, and empower businesses to the causes they care about.

We hope our Italian Job gives you new ideas on how you can make your own project Sharia compliant. We would also like to learn how your company perceives and creates opportunities, and how our Consultative works can hopefully become a responsible partner in your society. Remember, the promise of Islamic finance is compelling, and the results are real.

So let’s go solve those challenges!

The future of finance will be less about debt and financial engineering, and more about equity; long-term impact; connecting capital with communities; and helping future generations. Institutions that will promote such investments with profit and loss sharing ownerships and sustainable programs, will help hasten this welcome change in financial markets around the world.

One such institute putting these interests first is Australian based EFSOL. Their Sharia compliant financial solutions call attention to the needs and rights of individuals, businesses and local economies using equitable instruments of Mushakara, Ijara and Murabaha. They have been operating in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and have recently established an office in Singapore in preparation for the launch of there wholesale investment fund. A scheme that will be registered and regulated by the Moneyary Authority of Singapore.

We see EFSOL as an inventive, thoughtful, creative and determined organisation, helping make the world of financial solutions a better place. They will build a brighter future with products that are truly convenient, equitable and Shariah-compliant. At our organization we support and encourage such establishments to explore and challenge the financial offerings through innovative equity-based structures.

The past two decades have brought tremendous innovations in Islamic financial markets, and no one knows what the future of financial markets holds. But we can tell you one thing: it’s going to be better thanks to efforts of organizations like EFSOL – especially as an era of equitable financing emerges.

Can technology help us grow more with less?

In an inspiring new trend, US based FreshBox Farms is showing the world that it is not only realizable but with the right ingredients it can reduce our ecological footprint on the planet. You may wish to watch the TED talk by Sonia Lo, CEO of FreshBox Farms, as she shares her bold vision for growing compact vertical farmlands for our cities.

When FreshBox Farms was first introduced to me a year ago, the idea immediately stole my heart. Beyond the practice of saving over 97% of water, to smart mechanical techniques for avoiding GMO’s and pesticides, I was captivated by the ability to “vertically” grow crops in our cities. And the idea of building incredibly compact container farms to green our cities is truly incredible. Not surprisingly, this means our vegetables don’t need to travel very far to get to our tables. Now, that’s doing more with less.

We’ve recently signed an agreement with FreshBox to help structure and manage their Investments using Islamic financial modalities. This project is a first of its Shari’a compliant kind enabling investors to participate in leasing Hydroponic Box Units – the units where the farming environment is managed and digitally controlled.

FreshBox’s new technology will not only shorten distances from agricultural production to consumption, but will change the landscape of agricultural investments, allowing cities and suburban’s to supply fresh and local produce at the highest quality – and, unlock a new perspective on the future of our cities.

Talk about doing more with less!

When Islamic businesses are empowered to dream big, they become capable of tackling significant problems—and if they are strengthened with a range of Shari’a Consultancy services they take solid actions and become an important pillar of a thriving investment community. That’s why four years ago we launched our first unlimited Shari’a Consultation program, a service designed to help businesses learn, connect, build and develop their own offerings in a Shari’a compliant way.

Over the years our service started to take shape of a hub for new entrants desiring to offer their products in the Islamic markets. Businesses from Canada to Hong Kong, from Azerbaijan to Australia started to fuel up ideas with our Shari’a experts, discuss propositions on video calls, explore financial structures with scholars, and connect with dedicated teams of Consultants. So far, it’s been a thrilling experience and we’ve seen great results with clients creating new products and services.

Building on the success of these services, we’re welcoming another new player from UAE to our portfolio of clients: Commercial Bank International (CBI). We’re excited to open our Consultative doors to them and our interdisciplinary teams have started to directly involve them with our supporting programs. By putting the right resources at their fingertips we’ll be helping CBI establish an Islamic unit and also structure, design and host new Islamic products and build transformative services to meet their Corporate banking demands.

We’ll also be working hard this year to make it easy to deliver our Shari’a certification, equities screening and Shari’a Audit services to prospects worldwide. Since our humble beginnings ten years ago we’ve grown to include +67 portfolio companies across a host of industries, 3,000 transactional programs, 5 interdisciplinary teams and a combined scholarly workforce of 27 advisors from 14 countries. And we’re not done yet: our advisory services will continue to improve—serving international businesses like CBI to help them maintain and offer Shari’a compliant products when and where they need it.

The scope and value of our services, and the help they offer in building a thriving economy, keeps us excited. And we are very lucky to be a part of this business!

It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with helping investments and businesses worldwide comply with Shari’a.

Today, you can get a preview on one of our ambitious works with Washington-based Falah Capital. By pushing the boundaries of our GCC based operations we have helped them open up a new world of investment opportunities for faith based investors around the world. The Islamic ETF is the first of its kind to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is expected to bring to life even more investments and engaging experiences from the rising community of Islamic Investors. 

But beyond the NYSE listing we remain very excited about how we are helping institutions build their portfolios and tap the growing Islamic markets — and we’re even more excited to see what type of business comes to us in the years to come.

We are always ready for more!

Starting today, Cameroon based Ovamba Solutions is bringing trade financing to African businesses using the ethical mode of Murabaha.

The Murabaha mode of trade financing is a great way for businesses to get access to financing.  Its also another way for organizations and communities to empower themselves by encouraging trade and development at the most relevant moments in their business cycles.

As technologies develop and become more accessible, financial instruments are allowing companies like Ovamba to create funding mechanisms & products that were never before possible.  Offering African SMEs financial support using Murabaha solutions combined with a world class technology platform will be seen as a revolution in business communities all around the world today.

Ovamba’s long-term ambition is to build a series of trading and financing programs focused on uplifting the future of small businesses, and drive new investment into African communities.  To start, Ovamba will be launching the Murabaha  solution to its existing operations in Cameroon followed by a full expansion throughout the rest of Africa in 2016 and beyond.

We’ll be working with them on bringing new instruments that are ethical in nature and comply with Sharia to more African countries, so stay tuned.

2015 marks a new era of change for us, and there are a lot of ways to make change — by building new resources, by expanding our services, by engaging with customers unfamiliar with Islamic financial markets. This year we’ll be combining our efforts to help organizations address some of the biggest Sharia Advisory challenges they face. Since these companies are the ones making a direct impact by serving people, businesses and facilitating Sharia compliant investments around the world, every day.

One of our efforts will go to supporting Dubai based Beehive Group – the region’s first online marketplace for peer-to-peer financing. They have assigned Shariyah Review Bureau to help manage their Sharia compliant expansion plans as they seek to offer their services to faith based businesses and investors. Using innovative technology of crowd-funding Beehive is working to eliminate the cost and complexity of Sharia compliant financing for businesses seeking lower cost credit facilities while offering investors better and diversified returns. We will help certify and supervise their Islamic credit platform, along with their financial and investment offerings in compliance with Sharia.

This is just the beginning of our effort. Over the course of the year, we will strive to make the markets of Islamic finance a little bit better through our unlimited consultation and open-idea platform. Today, thanks to a number of collaborative advisory improvements and integrated scholarly platform, we’re able to make Sharia Advisory more affordable for you to discuss your ideas with Sharia experts, from anywhere.

We’re inspired by Beehive and similar organizations who are relentlessly working to make a difference. And we’re glad to do our part and look forward to more exciting works making a difference in 2015.

We are amazed at how we continue to learn new things and grow every single day at Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB). The project-based nature of our work and our role of providing Shari’a consultation to a large number of firms across multiple industries has allowed us to learn a great deal on different types of businesses worldwide in the shortest possible time. The high levels of energy displayed by my colleagues and the positive spirit of our clients allows us to solve complex problems in light of Shari’a every day. But what makes our work at SRB truly unique is the workplace environment that deeply encourages seeking ‘creative solutions’ and a healthy disregard for what may be considered as ‘non-attainable’.

Take our latest case of Saudi based Ijmal – a rising leader in real estate financing programs – which is one that I would happily rate a 8 out of 10 in terms of the subtle intricacies and conventional complexities faced in their working modalities from a Shari’a point of view. This project is about meeting the specific demand of the real estate industry by developers. With residential properties being continuously built and expanded, the demand for new projects seems to be growing exponentially in the Kingdom. And we have been assigned the daunting mission of making the leasing programs for Ijmal comply with Shari’a.

At SRB we embrace such challenges. To derive solutions we internally open-source the dynamics and mechanism between our Shari’a Review Consultants, Shari’a Advisors, scholars, our own developers, screening partners, and of-course with the client who comes to us with such wonderful ideas. Such opportunities truly stretch and inspire us.

Our team is loving this current engagement: we have an open and healthy dialogue with the client and what inspires us even more is that we immediately begin to see the impact of our work, and we all feel the power, thrill and excitement of helping a business like Ijmal – to achieve its full potential in a Shari’a compliant way.

This positive culture of “real-time” creative solutions at Shariyah Review Bureau is contagious. We knew this was a place where we would see ourselves happy. And after nearly a decade of serving establishments worldwide we still love going to work every single day with great excitement. We’re also still learning a lot – especially how local businesses develop and how we can help them grow by attaining Shari’a compliance with an impact that changes lives of many Islamic financial investors.

We’ve always known how important ‘access to information’ is when it comes to investors requests, the rapid expansion of our services in the past years have underscored just how urgent the issue truly is in the growing Islamic markets.

Institutional investor requests for Shari’a compliance information in the products, funds and even institutes we serve as Shari’a supervisors have doubled over the last three years. Though the number of institutions we certify and supervise has also grown throughout the years, we’re also seeing more and more individual interest start to make requests from different parts of the world.

To meet these requests – particularly from multiple time zones such as Europe, US, Australia and the far East – we’re launching our “Verify Your Shari’a Certificate” program. Through this online engine we’re committing ourselves to provide safe, secure, reliable and up-to-date information on the Shari’a compliance status and assurance audit of your investment whenever you need it. So if you have been presented our Certificate and you would like to learn more about the Shari’a compliance status of the underlying investment, visit our new accessibility site at https://shariyah.com/track-certificates/ and enter the unique Certificate Tracker Number in the search tool*. We’ve been able to develop this engine through understanding best practices, our own rigorous standards and a careful analysis of the year-on year requests we have received, regardless of type.

As a global Shari’a Advisor we carry a big responsibility towards finding innovative ways to give back to the investor community. Everyone, regardless of location, should be able to experience the power of Shari’a reports, assurance and direct-communication. While the trends for more transparent information have been clear for decades, we believe we have now reached an important point to start providing Shari’a compliance information access to investors worldwide. Though we cannot boldly predict what countries it will touch, or how much Islamic investors from UK to Azerbaijan to Hong Kong will truly gain in the years to come. But we are absolutely certain of one thing: access to information will play a key role!

Your investments are important to you, and making sure it stays Shari’a compliant is important to us. And we’ll also constantly work on ways to improve our reporting process.

*This information will only be accessible to those whom our Shari’a Certificate has been presented by our clients.

We’re celebrating our success early this year with our assignment as the external Shari’a Auditor for SEDCO Capital’s two funds worth $160 Million.

At the heart of this appointment is a strategy to focus and build on the three groups of areas we serve in our Shari’a Compliance audit — transparency, accountability and accuracy – in light of Shari’a guidelines. We found SEDCO’s goal of increasing the amount of Shari’a compliant investments in ESG (ethical, social responsibility, and corporate governance) standards that are the basis of the United Nations’ 2005 Principles for Responsible Investment as truly unique. And we remain excited to see the positive impact on the local economies where such investments will operate.

We now wish to see more and more companies embed ethical and socially responsible strategies in their portfolios. We’re happy to play an independent role in such an incredible effort.

Shari’a Consultation is about trying new ideas, exploring unanswered questions, experimenting and learning as you go.

I’ve long been inspired by the concept of “direct access” with experts and how it opens the doors to opportunity. These Consultative sessions provide access to knowledge to both sides and help attain commonality in light of Shari’a, no matter who you are or what business you run. For instance, it doesn’t matter if you’re a major bank in the Middle East or a fresh graduate from a rural university in Malaysia, or a new start-up at Washington in US, with interactive Consultation, you have the ability to directly explore and effectively discuss your investment ideas and their potential from a Shari’a perspective.

That’s the spirit behind our latest work with Ashmore, the London-based investment manager that specialises in global emerging markets and is expanding its range of Shari’a-compliant investments in the Middle East. Together with its world-class research, our resident scholars and Shari’a reviewers, we worked on Ashmore’s Islamic IPO investment project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The assignment is about meeting the specific demand of Islamic investors in the world of IPOs. As the number of enterprises trying to access capital markets continues to grow at a phenomenal speed in the Kingdom the demand for Islamic investments also seems to be growing exponentially. The subtle intricacies and conventional IPO complexities faced from a Shari’a point of view were exciting and daunting to us at the same time. But the exchange of information and ideas across both platforms has exceeded all expectations.

From start-ups to technological companies to large corporations and national governmental projects, institutions from around the world are embracing Shari’a compliant financing mechanism as a means of growth, expansion, sustainability, diversification and competitive advantage. It’s only through trying out and testing new ideas with experts that organizations can get somewhere. Now it’s your turn.

So, what will you try?

As 2015 begins, everyone at Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) feels an incredible sense of duty and responsibility to those who depend on us to offer guidance and supervise their businesses from a Shari’a perspective. In today’s age, tailored and specialized services are a key to success for enterprises in many industries. Over the years we’ve become proficient in offering customized advice and going forward we remain determined to offer everyone precisely the service they need to be successful. Doing this naturally means facing a wide range of challenges, even within one industry.

Take PayTabs – a shining new star from Saudi, pledging a commitment to be the fastest e-commerce payment solution provider in the region. The primary goal PayTabs aims to achieve is to provide online payment solutions to fit the needs of SME’s within the region and worldwide. With PayTabs businesses can tap, connect and start receiving all payments hassle-free in just 24 hours and if businesses don’t have a website, they can still accept payments online using PayTabs – an innovative and first time feature for this region.

Our goal is to make it possible for them to operate and function their business and products in a Shari’a compliant way. We’ve been testing their structures extensively, from monetary arrangements to Visa and Master card partnership to Processing and Merchant contracts. And today we are delighted to inform that SRB has issued the first Certification of Compliance to their e-product. That means they’re beginning to roll out e-commerce solutions with a Shari’a Compliance tag to SME’s around the world.

This is still just the beginning, and while we’re excited about this first step, we look forward to working with PayTabs and bringing their amazing solutions to more businesses globally. It is for these long-term enterprises that we run SRB. We remain confident that SRB’s best days are yet to come (InshaALLAH!), and we’re honored more than ever to serve this industry.

We’re just getting started!

Recently, we signed up with three institutions from Saudi Arabia to help them bring new Shari’a compliant offerings in the Kingdom. Since then, first products powered by faith, have gone out in the Islamic markets, and their developers are now preparing to enhance their offerings, and we expect new services to become available soon from more players in the region.

Our long-term goal is to help businesses build investments that help communities connect with others and add value to local economies. In simple words, we want to support products that are built for societies sake, rather than for own sake, schemes that put investors interest first before their own profits. As we move throughout the rest of this year, we’re eagerly looking out for newer, bigger and resourceful projects that will help us contribute towards a better future.

Have a Great Day!

When we launched unlimited Shari’a Consultation back in 2011, we set out to be a very different type of Shari’a Advisory establishment. New entrants and Islamic institutes need more than just a Shari’a compliant product to succeed: they also benefit from structuring support, design Shari’a expertise, and guidance with clear understanding of parameters and Shari’a risks. Three years later, we’re working with more than 40 portfolio companies worldwide, tackling Shari’a compliant challenges across a host of industries.

Our goal has been simple: we want to help businesses and entrepreneurs anywhere in the world bring their ideas to life in a Shari’a compliant way. And it is heartening to see a list of international companies making the cut for our Consultation and Supervisory program. One such global company is The International Bank of Azerbaijan who has assigned us for its upcoming community projects dedicated to the Azeri society using Shari’a compliant modalities. We believe their communal development schemes ranging from education to House repairing to credit supports will have enormous potential in Azerbaijan and we expect to see compelling new ideas emerge from the country and beyond.

We can’t predict the kinds of investment schemes and business ideas the Islamic financial industry might showcase 15 years from now, but we do know the contribution of The International Bank of Azerbaijan will be essential to this future, and we can’t wait to see what new entrants will develop next in a Shari’a compliant way.

If you search for Islamic finance in Kazakhstan, you would see a lot of search results — but not the one that would put them on the Islamic Financial Map. But all that is expected to change in the coming years.

The National Bank of Republic of Kazakhstan (NBRK), few years back established an Association for Development of Islamic Finance (ADIF) to help promote, build and grow the Islamic financial sector in the country. Heading the organization are Kazakhstani’s men and women doing amazing jobs. But, more important, they’re all professionals who believe in Islamic finance, with an ability to understand basic Shari’a structures, to do those jobs. Unfortunately, there are far too few professionals like them and far too fewer people with knowledge of Shari’a following their paths.

This is an issue that hits home for us at SRB. So, we decided to launch a campaign from Bahrain connecting to institutions in Kazakhstan seeking Shari’a scholarly resources through ADIF. We’re attempting to offer unlimited Shari’a Consultation in the country on a much larger scale, an initiative to inspire establishments to explore their ideas and offerings in light of Shari’a. The engagement will also include facilitating Certification, structure development and Shari’a Audits.  And, we’ll also be helping ADIF develop a few steps which they can take at home to get their local-institutions excited about Islamic investments. It’s not easy, but it’s expected to show results.

Let’s put Kazakhstan on the map!

As a financial institute, you juggle different functions throughout the day—a Sharia reviewer for internal examination, a shared officer for coordination and secretarial work, and an intelligent Sharia Auditor for supervising records. In an inspiring trend, we’ve begun to replace the need for those various functions to be managed internally—what you manage with different departments can now be done at a single platform. Through our services, we try to help these possibilities come to life.

Today our services are used for by financial institutions who collectively manage millions worth of assets under management. One such pioneer is Eskan Bank for whom these are services of choice because of their superfast review, extreme responsiveness and low Sharia Audit cost – and as part of the new generation requirements they are designed to adapt to the many ways Eskan performs, develops and grows in the Kingdom.

We believe in the power of outsourcing to help banks like Eskan focus on their business priorities and do what they do best in the way they find most effective. And we’ll continue to work with financial institutions to help support the important work they do every day.

So, here’s to the next generation of Sharia audit solutions!

Today, the Shari’a scholarly resources available to clients worldwide are completely changing the potential for new businesses and investment funds. Your trip to setting up an Islamic enterprise in 1990’s would look quite different today. Simply because you have much more scholarly power at your fingertips, and you don’t even have to worry about huge retainer costs, time spent on product reviews and certification. Institutions like ours let you directly explore ideas from a Shari’a perspective with just a few keystrokes or a phone call. Having direct access to Advisory experts makes it so easy for institutions to share information and better understand how their products will function in the world of Islamic businesses. And once you begin to understand, you can start to foster positive change.

One such institute inspiring to illuminate the world of Islamic investment funds in multiple industries is Bahrain based Investrade. Our objective in the engagement with them is to create a Shari’a Supervisory Board while directly handling and reporting to the members of the Shari’a Board all product structuring, queries, preliminary reviews and Shari’a Audit functions.

Today, on celebrating the approaching 10th birthday of Shariyah Review Bureau (only two weeks away!), our wish is for individuals and institutions around the world to think about ways they can use their investment ideas in a Shari’a compliant way and to learn more about the wonderful world of businesses we share. You have the power to do so much more in expanding the field of Islamic investable universe than others did back in 1990’s, to spark an inspiring change which no one could have imagined back then. And you can do it no matter where in the world you are.

Good Luck!

Riyadh is home to some of the brightest companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an excellent financial landscape, a rising population of talent and a potential of growth that can compete with any other city in the MENA region. It comes as no coincidence that this city is also home to some of the most ambitious financial advisory establishments out there in the Middle East, which is why we are excited to welcome Mulkia Investment, a Saudi-based new investment and financial service provider, to our portfolio of clients. We believe Riyadh’s thriving financial community and deep pool of Islamic investors, combined with the city’s natural wealth and resources, makes it the perfect place for Mulkia’s grand Shari’a compliant plans.

Licensed by the CMA, Mulkia is setting itself up to become a market player in the field of asset management & corporate finance, growing and establishing itself across the Kingdom by hosting Shari’a compliant investment funds, portfolios management and securities underwriting.

Not too long ago, Shariyah Review Bureau was just a small startup in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Now that we have grown up a bit, we want to support entrants like Mulkia helping them work on their innovative Investment ideas in a Shari’a compliant way.

So, get ready Mulkia —we at SRB can’t wait to see how your business grows and plays its role in expanding the creative world of Islamic Investments.

We’re always keen to see how we can help businesses bring as many products and investment schemes as possible to comply with Shari’a. By providing new entrants unlimited advice and reduced Shari’a supervisory costs – we’ve been able to successfully expand new facilities in the Shari’a compliant markets.

Today, we’ve announced the signing of a new commanding agreement. We will be administering and supervising the entire Shari’a compliance output of CrediMax for its new Islamic product titled “Tayseer” in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We keep signing these new deals for two prime reasons: they make excellent business sense for us, and increase the amount of Islamic products available in the market, which is great for Shari’a conscious consumers.

We remain keen to helping entrants expand new facilities in the Shari’a compliant credit market!

Seems just like yesterday that we announced our biggest US assignment on Shari’a compliant Exchange Traded Funds!

Today, we’re taking another step towards a major new upcoming investment in Saudi Arabia. Together with Swicorp we will be supervising, from a Shari’a perspective, multiple top tier deals to accredited investors in the Middle East.

This is our 37th major assignment in the Kingdom making us the Shari’a Advisor to 15% of the Investment companies licensed by the CMA. Overall we’ve invested more than 19 thousand hours in developing new knowledge, skills and insights in Islamic projects around the world, and we’re always on the hunt for new opportunities to help businesses bring their products to Shari’a compliant markets and making Islamic investments available to more people every day!

I’m certain that similar great opportunities will be coming your way soon – so just make sure you seize them and make the most of each one.

Good Luck!

Getting Shari’a Compliant Certification can make a big difference for businesses worldwide—and in today’s times enterprises are attaining Shari’a compliance to build stronger relationships with the expanding community of Islamic Finance. Businesses who aspire to cater the faith based values of their investors are expected to grow faster and create more jobs than their conventional peers but more than ninety percent of America’s businesses currently don’t have Shari’a compliant offerings.

That’s the inspiration behind Falah Capital! A rising new star who has come together with US partners and Shariyah Review Bureau to illuminate the landscape of Shari’a compliant offerings from America to communities around the world.

We’re thrilled in welcoming such enterprises to the exciting world of Shari’a compliant businesses. We see Falah Capital as a business that will make a positive difference in our world! And we invite you to reach out and see if your business too can have a positive impact.

See you on the Islamic side!

Ten years ago our founders got together to help businesses around the world bring their ideas to the expanding markets of Islamic Finance. Our journey since then has lead us to work with companies beyond the banking and insurance sectors and towards a wide range of industries such as energy, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, real-estate, retail, and transportation — and with many more to come.

Today, we have announced a new addition, all the way from Hong Kong, in our portfolio of companies. Treedom Hong Kong is the world’s leading manufacturer involved in Oud Oil businesses. It is considered as one of the few international firms which owns its entire value-chain model from producing raw material to plantation, from manufacturing to supplying, and sales of luxury Oud oil and perfume products.

We at Shariyah Review Bureau see prospects for all types of businesses that comply with Shari’a as remarkably bright. The world is also witnessing this trend as the Islamic industry spreads its wings beyond the financial world towards farming, media, pharmaceuticals, food and tourism. However, given the nature of businesses worldwide the Shari’a compliant industry will grow at different speeds in different countries with some segments gaining more momentum than others.

We remain very excited about how we are helping businesses worldwide build their dreams and tap the growing Islamic markets — but we’re even more excited to see what type of business comes to us in the years to come.

We are ready for more!

Over the past few years, Thomson Reuters have done a tremendous job reinventing their works in the domain of Islamic Finance through its Islamic arm known as Zawya. One such development is providing specific sets of Shari’a compliant contracts and documents, advised and certified by us, to its customers everywhere in the world. The idea behind this pioneering initiative is to drive innovation across the world of Shari’a compliant businesses, for the benefit of Islamic Investors around the world.

We’re very excited by the opportunities that will be built and the amazing new Shari’a compliant products which will come out by the end-users of Zawya.

I’m phenomenally impressed with this assignment and confident that we’lll continue to assist clients and customers around the world helping them make their businesses and products comply to Shari’a.

You’d think our excitement might wear off with this whole Shari’a compliant agricultural investment thing. Nope—we’re still into it as ever, which is why we’re thrilled to announce our 3rd deal in less than seven months: We’re now helping a Canadian farmland management firm, AGInvest Properties Canada Inc. to structure high-grade agricultural partnership opportunities in Ontario. With an impressive landmass of nearly 10,000,000km2, Canada ranks second globally by count of land and water, and contains some of the worlds highest-grade farmland. Within the country the largest concentration of prime agricultural land is in the Province of Ontario. It is here that we will assist AGInvest to structure their offerings in a Shari’a compliant way and help generate new investments for the global investor, Canadian farmers, and their agricultural facilities.

Our Shari’a Advisory role will be similar to one we made in last year, when we teamed up with a UK based firm to help them manage their Argentinean farmlands in a Shari’a compliant way. Those facilities have since started attracting new flow of Shari’a compliant capital, and having seen the benefits of such investment partnerships we’ve committed ourselves to try and help more similar life-sustaining projects around the world.

While we’re proud of the progress we’re making, we know that we can still do better.

For ten years we’ve been looking for ways to support investments that not only comply with Shari’a but are attractive, simple, and powerful. In the pursuit we’ve hit upon a revolutionary scheme which will allow us to continue building towards that cause and help support the growth of green energy investments in the UK.

The project is a first of its Shari’a compliant kind enabling investors to participate in a UK-based solar photovoltaic generation plant and generate revenue by selling electricity to the national grid.

Our long-term goal is to help more businesses develop and expand cost-effective renewable energy options through Shari’a compliant venues. We hope that our efforts will encourage the growth of more clean energy in the UK and elsewhere through the rapidly growing community of Islamic investors. By helping such businesses grow we will help drive more investments towards a clean energy future —where sustainable energy will be in abundance, easy to get and affordable.

It won’t happen overnight but we will continue working hard to make that future a reality!

We designed our Shari’a Advisory model for growing Institutions because we believed it would help them learn about Islamic financial structuring more collaboratively and help them spend less time on scholarly administration, product approvals, Shari’a Supervisory Audits and more time on their businesses. It’s been thrilling for us to see how some businesses have benefited from direct access to Shari’a Advisors, Consultants and a team of Shari’a Auditors allowing them to better understand the concepts underpinning Shari’a compliance. Best of all, the management and product engineers of some of the financial institutes seem more energized and excited to actively participate in understanding Shari’a requirements and creatively applying them in growing their institutes.

One such institute looking at actively deploying our model is Bahrain based Tharawat Investment House. It has assigned us to manage and supervise its Shari’a Supervisory Board functions as part of its move to effectively integrate Shari’a compliance into its corporate environment and investment offerings.

Our ultimate goal at Shariyah Review Bureau is to increase collaboration between businesses and Shari’a experts while building a robust Shari’a supervisory management system. We believe this will encourage organizations to think more creatively but always in align with Islamic principles. And so far, the results seem to be good— some of our clients are already experimenting with new ideas and ways of governing their firms and investments in compliance with Shari’a.

Our model is just one example of how bringing committed Shari’a experts into direct contact with organizations can have a real and immediate impact on both business offerings and its employees. We’re excited to keep working on our model that can help corporate firms learn and grow —in Bahrain and around the world.