I am Ibrahim Al-Mheiri, the CEO and Head of Islamic Banking at Mashreq Al Islami.
What does Islamic finance mean to you?
Islamic finance or Islamic banking is one of the important pillars in the Islamic banking industry because of the authenticity of Islamic finance.
We as Mashreq Al Islami provide that confidence to the audience.
How important is ethics in Islamic finance?
We are governed by the UAE Central Bank, the Higher Shari’ah Authority and the internal Shari’ah governance team within Mashreq bank, where they make sure we go through that hierarchy to make sure all of our products are structured in accordance with Islamic principles and guidelines.
This goes all the way up from internal business team to the Shari’ah team to the internal Shari’ah supervisory committee, then the higher Shari’ah authority, which resides in the UAE Central Bank.
People should understand that offering Islamic banking to the community and banking community is not an easy way to offer banking. Yet it ensures the authenticity of Islamic banking to the end user.
Is Islamic finance only for Muslims?
Islamic banking is not just only for muslims, which is perhaps a presumption.
But I can assure you that around 30% of Islamic banking is used by non-Muslims because customers understand the meaning of dealing with this type of banking.
I won’t pretend that commercial and Islamic banking are totally different in terms of their principles.
Yet when people believe in something that adds to their day-to-day activities, which will pay back something for them in terms of what is good finance, then definitely they will go for it.
Read the full interview with Ibrahim Al-Mheiri, the CEO and Head of Islamic Banking at Mashreq Al Islami in our March edition.
