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Partner, UK head of Islamic finance

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

London, UK

57

British

My interest in Islamic finance began after I went on pilgrimage in 2002, and became professional in 2005 when the UK began changing its corporate and personal income tax laws to facilitate Islamic finance.

What does your role involve?
My key role is to coordinate the UK Islamic finance team. Our firm is organized into multiple business units, so that our Islamic finance specialists are embedded in many business units such as our audit practice, our corporate finance practice, and our M&A (merger and acquisition) tax practice. Hence the role is very much one of coordination rather than management.

Our UK Islamic finance team operates as part of our global Islamic finance team, led by my partner Mohammad Faiz Azmi in Kuala Lumpur.

What is your greatest achievement to date?
My greatest personal achievement is my family. Within Islamic finance, it is establishing a global reputation within two years of becoming professionally involved.

Which of your products/services deliver the best results?
We do not have standardized products or services, as PwC provides professional services which are tailored to the needs of each client.

What are the strengths of your business?
PwC is the largest professional services organization in the UK, and also the largest globally. We have a particularly strong footprint in the financial services industry.

What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
We are a people business, and aim to be the employer of choice. In the UK, each year the Times newspaper conducts a survey of graduates, to ask them which organization would be the best place to develop their career. We have been placed first for the last four years.

What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
Our greatest challenge is the need to attract and retain the best people, in an environment where the opportunities available to our people expand every day.

Where do you see the Islamic finance industry, maybe in the next five years?
I expect major growth in Takaful, as the ratio of insurance premiums to GDP is much lower in the Muslim world than it is in OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. To me this indicates that Muslims are running with an excessive level of uninsured risks.

Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance?
I would like a greater level of standardization in documentation and in Shariah opinions.

At PricewaterhouseCoopers, we measure our success by yours. Every day our more than 146,000 people in 150 countries go to work to help our clients succeed. From Dublin to Durban, from Minneapolis to Manila, our job is channeling knowledge and value through our lines of service and 22 industry-specialized practices.

We are committed to serving as a force for integrity, good sense and wise solutions to the problems facing businesses and the capital markets today. Transparency and good standards of corporate governance, both in our clients’ businesses and in our own- are central to our ability to achieve those objectives.