From an Islamic window built from nothing to a single deposit product, and into the core banking system that has to execute it. We read the product, not just the paperwork.
The Lifecycle
Compliance is a state you maintain rather than a certificate you obtain, and the audit cycle is how you maintain it.
We understand the bank's product suite and its core banking system before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: the CBS configuration, the product guidelines, and whether the system executes what the contract requires.
Findings returned and worked through with your product and systems teams; the configuration is adjusted.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
For a bank the cycle runs for as long as the product is live: the configuration is re-tested every year, and every time the system, the product suite or the regulation changes.
We commit to two to four weeks for a first pronouncement. In practice it often runs longer, and in our experience the reason is the round trip rather than the review. We raise amendments, and your product and engineering teams need time to work through them. We would rather set that expectation now than surprise you in week three.
Engagements are scoped and priced individually. We have worked with banks building an Islamic window from nothing and with banks already running a live product suite. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
The problem
An Islamic banking product is defined twice. Once in the product guideline, and once in the core banking system that executes it. If the two disagree, the system wins, and every transaction the bank books is non-compliant regardless of what the guideline says.
This is the most common serious finding in Islamic banking, and it is close to invisible from the outside. The profit accrual runs on a schedule the contract does not support. The sale posts before ownership transfers. The late payment charge lands in income rather than charity. Each is a configuration decision made by someone who was never told it was a Shariah question.
So we go into the system. Reviewing a core banking configuration against the Shariah requirements and the central bank's rules is not an add-on to the advisory work, for a bank, it is the work.
Profit accrual
A schedule the contract does not support
Sale posting
Before ownership actually transfers
Late payment charge
Landing in income rather than charity
A configuration decision
Made by someone never told it was a Shariah question
What we do
Building the window end to end: the Shariah banking manual, product guidelines, the governance framework, and the training that lets the bank run it.
Structuring and certifying retail and corporate products across murabahah, ijarah, mudarabah, musharakah, wakalah and tawarruq.
Assessing and reviewing the CBS configuration for Islamic banking against Shariah requirements and the central bank's regulatory expectations.
Committee structure, reporting lines, policy, escalation and the annual Shariah report, built to what the regulator will actually ask for.
Islamic interbank instruments, liquidity management tools and the Shariah treatment of the bank's own balance sheet.
Guiding institutions converting existing products, portfolios or the whole institution, including the treatment of legacy exposures.
Building the bank's internal capability so Shariah literacy sits inside the institution rather than only in the adviser's office.
Evidence
Multinational bank establishing an Islamic window (South Asia)We built the window with the bank's team: the Shariah Islamic banking manual, the product guidelines, the Shariah governance framework, train-the-trainer delivery, and the assessment and review of the core banking system for Islamic banking against the central bank's regulatory requirements.
First bank in its market to launch Islamic banking (Southeast Asia)We developed two Shariah-compliant deposit products for a bank taking Islamic banking into a market that had not had it. Further products are in progress.
Training for Islamic banks across South Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Questions
Both, and the system review is usually where the findings are. We assess the configuration against the certified structure and against your regulator's requirements. A product guideline that the system does not implement is a compliance risk, not a compliance control.
With the business case and the governance model, before any product. A window built product-first tends to acquire a governance framework retrofitted around it, which is expensive to unwind. We have built windows from nothing and this is the order that works.
Yes. A meaningful share of our banking work is in markets where Islamic banking is new or where the regulator has no Islamic framework, and the structure has to satisfy Shariah while operating entirely within a conventional rulebook.
Our certification confirms Shariah compliance. It is not an assessment of whether a business is viable, whether its financials are sound, or whether the people running it can execute. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second. Every ADL certificate carries a reference you can check independently.
Book a consultation, whether you are building a window from nothing or reviewing a system already live.