SITR Compliance Technology (SITR), an early-stage Bahraini regulatory technology startup supported by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB), has announced the launch of its operations in the kingdom. SITR is building shariah compliance infrastructure for Islamic financial institutions. 

The announcement was made during Gateway Gulf 2026, the region’s premiere investment forum, hosted by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB) in capital Manama.

SITR serves Islamic banks across retail, commercial and wholesale activity, as well as a broader range of Shariah-compliant institutions and vehicles, including investment funds, exchange-traded funds, brokerages and consumer finance providers. Its coverage spans the full Islamic product suite, from Murabaha, Tawarruq and Ijarah to Musharaka, Mudaraba, Wakala and Sukuk.

The company chose Bahrain as its headquarters given the Kingdom’s long-standing position as a centre for Islamic finance, its progressive regulatory environment, and its role as home to the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). 

SITR said it has developed a compliance monitoring platform that reviews executed transactions against the rulings of an institution’s shari’a supervisory board on a continuous basis. 

Where internal Shari’a audit has traditionally relied on periodic, sample-based reviews, SITR gives compliance and audit teams visibility across the full transaction population, identifying issues such as incorrect execution sequences, documentation gaps and changes to core banking parameters before they develop into non-compliant income and purification obligations.

Designed around the Central Bank of Bahrain’s Shari’a Governance requirements and AAOIFI standards, SITR is aligned with ISO/IEC 27001 information security practices. It supports the internal Shari’a audit function while complementing the role of independent external Shari’a audit.

SITR has been developing the platform through close engagement with Shari’a audit and compliance teams at Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain, reflecting how internal Shari’a review is carried out in practice.

The platform is built to work with each institution’s existing environment rather than requiring it to change. It connects to core banking systems through read-only integrations that sit outside the transaction execution path, and it can also ingest contracts and supporting documentation in the formats institutions hold them, including scanned PDF documents. This allows banks to adopt SITR without disrupting live operations, however their Islamic financing records are captured today.

From its Manama base, SITR will serve institutions in Bahrain and across the GCC. As it scales, SITR plans to build its team with Bahraini talent across business development, operations and product, contributing to the Kingdom’s economic diversification and the growth of its fintech ecosystem.

"Islamic finance has grown into a global industry, yet much of the work of verifying Shariah compliance still happens after the fact and on a sample basis," remarked its Founder and CEO Yousuf Tyabji.

Across almost every industry, decisions are increasingly supported by automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, yet Shariah compliance has remained largely manual. Having seen this first-hand through my early experience in Bahrain’s banking sector, I wanted to take on that challenge, and to do it here at home. 

"Bahrain has shaped the standards the Islamic finance industry operates by, and I believe it should also lead in how that industry is assured. What stands out about building a company in Bahrain is how supportive the ecosystem is; people here genuinely want to see you succeed. As an early-stage company, the support we have received from Bahrain EDB has been instrumental in establishing SITR. We are excited to reach the stage where we can create opportunities for Bahraini talent and contribute to the Kingdom’s economy, while serving Islamic financial institutions across the region," he added.

Musab Abdullah, Executive Director of Business Development for ICT at Bahrain EDB, said: "SITR’s decision to establish its headquarters in Bahrain reflects the Kingdom’s strengths as a destination for technology and financial services companies, supported by a business-friendly environment, a well-established regulatory framework and a growing ICT ecosystem."

"The company’s focus on real-time Shariah compliance technology highlights the opportunities to develop innovative digital solutions that bring together technology and Islamic finance, supporting the continued evolution of Islamic banking in Bahrain and across the region," he added.