REGULATORY STATUS

Regulated by Central Bank of Bahrain:

Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) is the first Sharia advisory company to earn a regulatory license in the Middle East and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), License No. ANC/008. This enables us to provide you with Sharia advice, pronouncements (certification), Sharia supervisory review services, Sharia audit, Sharia screening services and developing Shari’a audit manuals.

The CBB license means that SRB can advise, certify and supervise on all types of financial activities conducted by banks, insurance firms, asset managers, fintechs and other financial service providers. These services are available not only to clients in the Kingdom of Bahrain but to clients worldwide and today our services are offered in +20 countries to clients from diverse industries.

You can be assured that your engagement are managed safely and securely with SRB under the strict regulatory guidelines laid down by CBB which is the single integrated regulator of Bahrain’s financial system. Additionally, you will have the comfort that our operations are governed by the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) of the Kingdom, which is supervised by the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Awqaf (MOJ). The PDPL requires businesses in Bahrain, to provide rights to you and to ensure that your data collected, processed and stored by us is done so in a fair and secure manner. All records are held confidentially and securely to comply with the PDPL law.

Verifying our license:

The internet will show you advertisements for several Sharia advisory firms offering their services. If you engage with an unauthorized firm you lose the safety offered by regulation, and you can lose access to important protections including filing and escalating complains designed to look after you if things go wrong. So how can you select the right firm for your professional Sharia compliance needs? It is of utmost importance to check the company and verify if it is a licensed member in good standing with the regulatory body.

You can find out if a firm is authorized by their regulator because nearly all regulatory authorities in the Middle East have a Register which tells you if a firm that you are using, or planning to use, has been authorized to do the specific business. In this regard you can verify that SRB has acquired and most importantly continues to maintain this license by visiting the website of Central Bank of Bahrain by following these simple steps,

Steps:

Go to the Central Bank of Bahrain’s Licensing Directory page: https://www.cbb.gov.bh/licensing-directory/
Select “Specialized Licenses” for Category Type.
Select “Ancillary Service Providers” for Subcategory Type.
In the Institution name drop down menu, you will see the name of the company alphabetically ordered. Select it and click on View Report.

SRB is currently the only licensed and regulated Sharia advisory company in Bahrain providing Sharia review and pronouncements.

Benefits of dealing with a regulated firm:

Apart from protecting consumers, the benefits of engaging a regulated firm are:

Important activities like accounting, auditing, management, corporate responsibility and other controlled functions are governed by the regulator in light of industry practices.
By setting minimum mandated standards regulatory framework provides assurances about the safety of the firm and ensure that they are operating to certain quality standards of business in providing those services.
Effective oversight allows you to know what compliance framework (if any) the regulated firm is following. These and other KYC/AML measures ensure that the Sharia advisory firm you are dealing with has an independent compliance department which follows an international anti-money laundering practice. This helps ensure that the firm is not approving transactions whose ultimate beneficial owner are domiciled in Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (‘NCCTS’) and that the firm has systems to adequately meet anti-money laundering and financial crime checking requirements. These steps ensures that the Sharia advisory firm is not excessively exposed to unnecessary risk.
Regulation helps ensure that the licensed firms have the appropriate risk policies and controls in place and these are appropriately governed under the “prudential regulation.”
Effective oversight helps maintain that the licensed firms treat their clients fairly and have a well-designed complaint handling and management procedure.
Prudential regulation makes sure that only authorized individuals – after they have fulfilled a number of criteria – are in the decision making position.

How to communicate with us:

We work hard to maintain our regulatory status along with the reputation of our firm, the Sharia certificates we issue and the investments we supervise. This is why we are interested to hear from you if you have any questions about our license, please email [email protected] or call +973 17215898.

VERIFY YOUR CERTIFICATE