Sharia-Product Accounting Board Examiner — Islamic Banking

The mandate

Product legal form, Sharia approvals, operational cash flows and accounting treatment are documented in separate packs. Variations in purchase sequence, agency, asset control, early settlement, profit allocation and late-payment amounts can change the economic and reporting analysis, yet committee papers begin with the selected conclusion. Directors want earlier challenge across product families without asking an adviser to issue a religious or accounting ruling.

Three days monthly will cover product-file review, private challenge with Finance and Operations, and chair preparation; six Riyadh committee sessions and four detailed file examinations are included. The examiner will select cases by materiality, novelty, execution variance and judgement. A proposed launch or material contract change receives an evidence request within three Saudi business days.

The ten-month appointment closes after annual reporting and one post-launch outcome review. A maximum two-month extension requires a named delayed product decision, refreshed independence and approval by both relevant chairs. Unused days lapse, and the role cannot become Sharia secretariat support, product structuring, contract drafting or recurring accounting-paper production.

The examiner has no line authority, executive responsibility, Sharia decision, product approval, legal mandate, accounting-signing right, audit function or committee vote. The Sharia Supervisory Board rules within its remit; management owns products and accounts; Legal and auditors retain their roles. The examiner can connect evidence and expose inconsistency but cannot decide permissibility or accounting treatment.

Interests involving the bank, product counterparties, sukuk issuers, scholars, law firms, accounting advisers, auditors, technology vendors or competing institutions require disclosure. Prior design of a reviewed product creates recusal. Compensation cannot depend on launch, profit, accounting result, Sharia finding, audit outcome or extension, and restricted board deliberations remain confidential.

Why the board wants this voice

Product, Sharia, Legal, Operations and Finance teams each hold legitimate but bounded expertise, while directors must understand whether approved form matches executed cash flows and reporting evidence. Independent examination gives the board cross-disciplinary challenge without establishing a rival Sharia opinion, management function or shadow audit.

What you will own

• Challenge transaction sequence, asset control, agency, consideration, profit, settlement and late-payment evidence against approved product form.
• Trace executed murabaha, ijara, musharaka, mudaraba and sukuk events through operations, subledgers, ledgers and disclosures.
• Examine profit allocation, investment-account treatment, impairment, charitable amounts, early settlement and contract modification evidence.
• Compare approved product papers with actual booking, asset movement, customer communication, exception and system configuration.
• Frame scenarios involving failed purchase, delayed title, agency breach, early termination, restructuring and non-standard fee.
• Identify questions requiring Sharia, Legal, Tax, Accounting, Product or Audit determination and preserve each boundary.
• Give committees a product dossier, contradiction log, conflict record, unresolved questions and post-launch review agenda.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior accounting or product-control authority within a material Islamic bank or diversified financial institution.
• Understands operational and accounting mechanics of murabaha, ijara, participatory contracts, investment accounts and sukuk.
• Challenged differences between approved form, executed sequence, cash flow, booking and customer treatment.
• Worked respectfully with Sharia boards, scholars, Legal, Product, Finance and auditors without crossing decision boundaries.
• Presented high-judgement product evidence to boards without issuing a Sharia, legal, accounting or assurance conclusion.
• Managed conflicts involving scholars, issuers, counterparties, advisers, auditors and competing Islamic institutions.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend all six Riyadh sessions and complete four controlled product-file examinations during ten months.
• Will disclose bank, counterparty, issuer, scholar, legal, accounting, audit and product-vendor relationships.
• Brings executed Islamic-product accounting governance; conventional product accounting alone is insufficient.
• Accepts no Sharia, product, legal, accounting, audit, executive or voting authority.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a product whose accounting changed after executed sequence diverged from approved form.
2. 49 words maximum. Which current scholar, issuer, counterparty or adviser relationship could require your recusal?
3. 49 words maximum. What early-settlement or failed-purchase event would you put before both boards?