Sunday, May 01, 2016

Dubai: Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has launched the first UAE Sharia Departments Forum 2016 to create a platform where the Sharia departments of financial institutions across the country can meet to exchange experiences and share solutions to the challenges they face, with the strategic objective of developing the Islamic financial services sector in the UAE.

The opening event took place on April 30. As the first event of its kind in the country, the Forum was led by the Sharia department at DIB and featured the Sharia departments of other local Islamic banks including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic and Al Hilal Bank. “Sharia Audit” was the theme of the event this year with a very comprehensive series of panels, each of which was led by one of the participants, discussing a different element of the topic.

DIB chaired a session on the “Sharia Auditor’s Guide”, while other banks covered topics such as “Sharia audit based on the risk of non-compliance” which was managed by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank; “The relationship between Sharia audit and internal audit, and areas of cooperation” by Emirates Islamic; and “The differences between the Sharia auditor and the Sharia compliance reviewer” by Al Hilal Bank. The event concluded with a round-table discussion on the findings and the recommendations of the Forum.

Challenges

“Given our unparalleled heritage in Islamic banking, we strongly believe that Sharia compliant financial institutions across the country need to come together to collaborate in order to share knowledge and work together to effectively address the biggest challenges we face today,” said Moosa Khoory, Head of Sharia, DIB

The event was established as a leading annual platform to discuss the most pressing issues facing Sharia departments and to develop innovative solutions that will drive the ongoing evolution of the Islamic financial services sector.

DIB’s Sharia department is looking forward to expanding this Forum over the next four years to include all the Islamic banks and Islamic windows in the country, as well as Islamic Finance companies, such as Takaful providers.

Staff Report

Gulf News 2016. All rights reserved.