CBUAE’s Shariah Authority Issued Guidelines for COVID-19 Relief

The Higher Shariah Authority (HSA) of the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for financial and banking activities has recently reviewed the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and approved a range of Shariah guidelines to minimize its effects on affected individuals and corporations.

During this discussion, the HSA issued guidelines relating to the deferral of instalments for customers of Shariah-compliant financing institutions and how to deal with such postponements from a Shariah perspective, depending on the nature of the transaction and the respective Shariah contracts. The HSA also adopted some Shariah principles and criteria for calculating recovery costs borne by Islamic financial institutions for late payment...