Investrade, a Bahrain-based Islamic investment company, has outsourced its Shari’a supervisory board role to Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), one of the world's leading independent Shari’a advisors with scholarly presence in over seven countries across Mena and Asia region.

As per the agreement, SRB will use its practices to create a Shari’a supervisory board delivery model, while directly handling and reporting to the members of the Shari’a board all product structuring, queries, preliminary reviews and Shari’a audits, said a senior official of Investrade.

"We selected SRB because of its expertise, regulatory acceptability, strong local establishment in Bahrain, international footprint in investment funds, multiple industry track record and for its ability to deliver large transformational Islamic projects that deliver important business outcomes" remarked Investrade CEO Abbas Ahmadi.

"Working with them we will strengthen our business with a focus on gaining competitive advantage in the Islamic wealth and asset management sector," he noted.

This will enhance the quality and efficiency of Investrade's integrated business investment processes, improve operational transparency, cut scholarly costs and more importantly lower the time spent on product reviews and certification, he added.
 
According to him, SRB has become a market leader in delivering Shari’a Advisory services that are designed to improve efficiencies in Islamic product approvals, monitoring fund transactions, quality in structuring Shari’a investments and audit services.

SRB founder and chief executive Yasser Dahlawi said: "2014 has turned out to be banner year for our Shari’a outsourcing offerings, and it makes us very proud that our efforts are being recognized by industry players."

He said more and more companies were outsourcing Shari’a supervisory board roles to SRB mainly due to its compelling value proposition of having direct access to scholarly experts with reduced costs, at a time when major economies and growth in businesses are uncertain in their outputs.

"This is why we are expanding our focus this year on the fundamentals of creating deeper Shari’a consultation and Shari’a audit outsourcing capabilities, which has led to many new business opportunities for us," stated Dahlawi.

"We are excited for the development and growth we have seen in our Shari’a Consultation business as a result of confidence held by clients like Investrade, and we look forward to professionally improving our services to be the Islamic outsourcing firm of choice for clients in Bahrain," he added.
 
Assistant general manager Mansoor Ahmed said: "We treat every company as a unique institute helping them develop and maintain a custom investment growth plan based on their own business idea, vision of the future, and strategic goals within the principles of Shari’a."

"Helping Investrade achieve its Islamic wealth transformation goals will be an important area of focus for us," he added.-TradeArabia News Service