Name: Company: |
Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff
Regional head of Islamic structuring Citibank Malaysia 33 Malaysian |
|
Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today? Another key task was to setup the Shariah governance framework and the Shariah committee for Citibank in line with Bank Negara Malaysia’s guidelines. I subsequently moved to the structuring desk, working on the introduction of globally accepted Shariah compliant risk management and investment solutions. When Citibank Malaysia was made the regional hub for Islamic treasury, I was given the responsibility of rolling out Citi’s Islamic solutions to the rest of the region.
What does your role involve? On the product development side, I speak to our clients, partners and Shariah experts regularly in order to identify market requirements, trends and recent technical developments. This in turn directs our product development efforts. We place great emphasis on maintaining clients’ Shariah confidence in our solutions. To this end, I work closely with our independent Shariah control unit to ensure continuous Shariah compliance. We now have a framework that ensures continuous Shariah oversight throughout the life of each solution or product and not just at the initial stage. For sales and marketing, given that the market is still at its infancy, we are focused on educational efforts with the objective of creating product awareness.
What is your greatest achievement to date? The launch subsequently won an award from a regional publication. We subsequently repeated this achievement with a few other clients.
Which of your products/services deliver the best results? We attribute this good performance to the successful partnership with the various clients in designing the investment.
What are the strengths of your business? The strong focus allows us plan our efforts and concentrate our resources effectively. Citi has invested in experienced personnel for critical functions such as Shariah oversight and Islamic product development. There are also designated Islamic champions within various teams and departments to ensure that there is dedicated specialist support for the Islamic business.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry in, say, the next five years or so? The emergence of Islamic financial institutions with business models that are designed from the ground up to be in line with principles of Shariah and to take advantage of technology. Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance. Adherence to Shariah alone is insufficient to differentiate Islamic finance from conventional finance.
|