Manama: Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG), the leading global Islamic banking multinational, headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain, held its Second Annual Forum for the Shari’a departments of the Group’s units around the world virtually.
The opening session of the forum was chaired by Adnan Ahmed Yousif, President and Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group, and was attended by each of the executive departments of the Group and the CEO of Al Baraka Islamic Bank Bahrain, Hamad Al-Oqab, in addition to the heads of the internal Shari’a audit departments.
The meeting discussed a number of issues that touch the Shari’a aspect of implementing financing operations, ways to ensure the highest levels of Shari’a compliance, and the role of information technology in strengthening Shari’a control. In addition, the meeting discussed the most prominent challenges facing the Group’s units, and those they faced at the beginning of the Corona pandemic, and the extent of the Shari’a supervisory bodies’ response to address these Shari’a risks.
In his opening speech at the forum, Adnan Ahmed Yousif affirmed that these meetings come within the strategic vision of Al Baraka Banking Group in promoting and strengthening Shari’a compliance frameworks, starting with the formation of bodies and then establishing Shari’a control and audit bodies while maintaining the highest professional standards.
“Perhaps a keen observer of the Group’s march from its establishment to the present day, will notice that, thanks to God, it has achieved many of its goals and objectives, more specifically in terms of Shari’a compliance. This is evidenced by the internal Shari’a audit reports that we received periodically, as they have been not only continuously reflecting steady improvement but also tangible progress in the work of our Shari’a system, which resulted in praise and obtaining the highest Shari’a classification for our actions,” he added.
