Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today?
I started my Islamic banking career with Al-Tawfeek Company for Investment Funds in Saudi Arabia, part of Dallah Albaraka Group. I was with them for seven years and left as head of the international finance division. I then moved to The International Investor, a Kuwait listed Islamic Investment banking company where I worked as a senior partner to establish the company’s investment banking practice in the UAE and Qatar. After which I became the managing director for Dubai Islamic Bank and started the asset management and capital market divisions.
My recent journey with Mashreqbank started when I joined Badr Al-Islami as head of corporate and investment banking. I took over the position of CEO and head of the Islamic banking division last year.
What does your role involve?
As the CEO / head of Mashreq Al Islami, my responsibility is to drive the main strategies of Islamic banking across all business sectors. Additionally, we are striving to put together a product platform that will mirror the existing conventional banking products with a strong emphasis to deliver a similar economic outcome. As we use all possible distribution channels including those available through Mashreqbank, we have also embarked on training and extending Shariah certification of all relationship and sales teams.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
Our challenge when we started Islamic banking for Mashreq Group was to establish the viability of the Islamic business model to our shareholders. When we were awarded the license to establish the Islamic finance company as well as manage the Islamic banking division of the bank in late 2006, our peer group made up of the top 10 domestic banks in the UAE were also accorded similar licences. However, when one of the leading Middle East business intelligence publications surveyed the leading Islamic banking and finance players in mid 2009, we were ranked 9th among the top 10 in the UAE and 26th among the top 50 Islamic banking and finance institutions. During this period, among other achievements are that we have led arranged an award winning Sukuk for Tamweel PJSC in 2008 and established market leadership in managing real estate trust accounts in the UAE.
Which of your products/services deliver the best results?
In current markets, where long term financing and investment banking deals poses challenges to domestic banks, we had foreseen the changing environment back in 2008 and accordingly shifted our focus on consumer and commercial banking. While both these segments of the economy have also seen stress, these segments are the core building blocks of the economy and have so far delivered decent results which are expected to do much better than other segments of banking and finance.
What are the strengths of your business?
The strength of our business model is our resolute affirmation to maintain the highest quality of services and turnaround time based on Shariah compliance through all distribution channels.
What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
The key success factor that drives our success is our shareholders who want us to push the Islamic banking and finance business across the board and the ambition of our team to deliver the best Islamic products and services throughout the institution.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
When one is setting up any platform to launch new business model whether it is Islamic banking and finance or anything else, one always faces issues such as acceptability, understanding, trust, manageability, awareness, willingness to adapt, and more. The main driver for us in overcoming any obstacle is training and providing Shariah certification of all banking personnel who are the touch points for the Islamic products and services.
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry in, say, the next five years or so?
Islamic finance industry will have sporadic growth in countries where it has taken root, and depending on the economic environment prevailing in those countries. However, the real growth in Islamic finance will be more pertinent in those jurisdictions that have started to pay attention to their legal and regulatory environment to establish Islamic institutions in their turfs. These include those non-Muslim countries that have been doing research on Islamic finance during the last 10 years. In terms of segmentation, emphasis will come to enhance Islamic products and services offerings for the consumer and private banking fronts.
Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance.
The one thing which will see Islamic finance reach towards a level of maturity is standardization of documentation which essentially entails standard and unified Shariah governance bodies.