Shariah Governance

CBD offers Shari’ah-compliant financial solutions to our retail and corporate clients under the Islamic window branded as CBD Al Islami. CBD Al Islami is regulated by Federal Laws, the Central Bank Higher Shari’ah Authority (HSA), and all its business, activities, products, services, contracts, documents, and code of conduct are supervised by the bank Internal Sharia Supervision Committee (‘ISSC’).

This Committee is independent, appointed by the general assembly of the bank based on the Board of Directors nomination for a term of three (3) years, and has the ultimate authority within CBD regarding all sharia related matters.

Shari’ah internal governance is established based on a ‘three lines of defence’ approach that are independent from each other as set out in the standards and regulations issued by the central bank of the UAE. While business managed by the Head of Islamic Banking acts as the first line of defence, an independent and separate internal Shari’ah Control Department headed by the Head of Internal Shari’ah Control is the second line of defence, and it implements and oversees the Shari’ah governance at CBD.

A separate and independent internal Shari’ah Audit Department headed by the Head of Internal Shari’ah Audit, being the third line of defence, undertakes the Shari’ah review and audit of the Islamic products and services offered by CBD Al Islami. Islamic Banking maintains a separate set of financial records to ensure that the accounts for the Islamic business are completely segregated from CBD’s conventional accounts.