New Finance, a Kazakhstan-based Islamic microfinance company, said it has selected Bahrain-based Sharia Review Bureau (SRB) to transform, certify and oversee a number of its sharia-compliant product and operations.

As a sharia advisory services provider, SRB will supervise Islamic operations to support New Finance’s sharia product strategy in small and medium enterprise financing, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

New Finance is looking to lift its customers engagement in areas like Ijara, Murabaha and Musharaka.

“In the near future, we expect to be generating richer experiences with our Sharia-compliant offerings and more opportunities for engagement and participation in our Islamic products in specialist areas of Kazakhstan,” said New Finance founder and chief executive Timur Alim.

According to him, outsourcing Sharia certification and supervisory services was aimed at ensuring that the company had access to “levels of expertise, scholarly resources and innovative market practices that simply aren’t achievable from a smaller in-house facility”.

SRB chief executive Yasser Dahlawi said companies often struggle to execute Sharia-compliant products that require direct access to resources, expertise and technical guidance.

“By bundling our certification, consultative and audit expertise, we provide consistent deliverables and added value in terms of access to resources in end-to-end Sharia compliance,” he added.

Almaty is one of the most populous cities in Kazakhstan and is widely held as the start-up/financial capital of the country.

With 97.7 per cent of all businesses in Almaty being small enterprises, SRB sees lots of opportunities in offering Sharia- compliant services.

“Our assignment by New Finance is part of a major initiative that is expected to significantly improve interest in Kazakhstan’s Islamic financial market,” said SRB assistant general manager Mansoor Ahmed. - TradeArabia News Service