The Governance and Ethics Board (AGEB) of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has officially published the exposure draft of the Governance Standard for Islamic Financial Institutions (GSIFI) No.9 “Shari’ah Compliance Function” and seeks to invite opinion and feedback from the Islamic finance industry.

The aim of the standard is to provide guidelines for establishing and managing a robust Shari’ah compliance function within Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) and for standardizing the practices across the globe.

The standard includes guidelines in establishing the Shari’ah compliance function with regard to the responsibilities and key considerations, along with the internal controls and processes within IFIs. The standard also details structure, scope and functioning of a Shari’ah compliance department, key functions and reporting lines. It also touches upon human resource aspects of the same.

The public hearings will be held during 2017 in different parts of the world to obtain the industry feedback on the exposure draft. Details of the public hearings, with respect to dates and venues, will be announced very soon. In the meantime, comments on the exposure draft are welcome and should be directed no later than 10 November 2017 to this email: governance@aaoifi.com. All the comments and suggestions of the public hearings will be presented to AGEB in an upcoming meeting to discuss and make necessary changes to the standard.

The exposure draft can be accessed Clicking HERE