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

1. Important activities like accounting, auditing, management, corporate responsibility and other controlled functions are governed by the regulator in light of industry practices.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.”
5. Effective oversight helps maintain that the licensed firms treat their clients fairly and have a well-designed complaint handling and management procedure.
6. Prudential regulation makes sure that only authorized individuals – after they have fulfilled a number of criteria – are in the decision making position.