MANILA, Philippines — The Shari’ah Supervisory Board (SSB) in the Bangsamoro region has released the guidelines on the submission of requests for Shari’ah opinions, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

The guidelines outline the procedures for submitting requests for opinion to the SSB, defines the scope of matters that may be referred for Shari’ah opinion and identifies eligible requesting parties.

These include Islamic banks, takaful and retakaful operators, regulatory bodies and non-governmental organizations, government agencies, cooperatives and other financial and non-financial institutions, offering Islamic finance products.

The SSB issues opinions on Islamic banking transactions and products issued by financial institutions and other stakeholders in the Bangsamoro and when requested by the BSP, financial institutions and other stakeholders.

In Islamic banking and finance, financial services must be consistent with Shari’ah principles.

For instance, Islamic banks offer products that do not involve interest which is prohibited in Shari’ah. Instead, Islamic banks offer alternative arrangements to generate income.

According to the BSP, requests may be submitted via postal mail or the official e-mail address of the SSB Secretariat, which will oversee the end-to-end process of handling requests for SSB opinion.

In April 2022, the SSB was established by its founding agencies namely the BSP, the Bangsamoro government, Department of Finance and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.

The initiative complements the state policy under the Islamic Banking Law in promoting a robust Islamic banking ecosystem.