A contemporary analysis on the practices of shariah review by the Islamic banks in Malaysia

Abstract

The key value proposition offered by Islamic banking and finance is an end-to-end Shariah compliant business environment. In supporting the above proposition, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had on October 20 I 0 issued the Shariah Governance Framework for Islamic Financial Institutions (the Framework) with the aims to strengthen the Shariah Governance process, accountability. decision making and independence of Shariah Committee. One of the important expectations of BNM via the Framework is for the Islamic Financial Institutions (IFis) to outline and perform the functions of Shariah Risk Management control. Shariah Audit and Shariah ReviC\ for a comprehensive Shariah compliant environment in their operation and business activities. Shariah Review is a new mechanism in managing and controlling Shariah compliance and being allocated an important function to continuously assess Shariah compliance of IF!s` operations and business activities. Its introduction received several comments from the Islamic banking players. which stated that its function is more or less similar to Shariah Audit function that would entail to duplication of function. It was also proposed by the Islamic banking players to merge the Shariah review function with those under Shariah audit or Compliance. This paper focuses on the Shariah Review function performed by the Islamic banks for the past three years and to evaluate whether their Shariah review function is similar to those of Shariah audit and Compliance. Hence. the objective of this paper are ( 1) to analyze the existing practices of Shariah review function by the Islamic banks, (2) to identitY gaps in the Shariah review function performed by Islamic banks in comparison to those stipulated in the Framework and (3) to gather feedbacks and comments from the Islamic banks on whether there is a need to propose enhancement to the Shariah review !unction of the Framework. which could contribute towards clarity and more efTcctive Shariah review function in delivering its deliverables.