IIRA Maintains Sharia Quality Rating of JIB

Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) has reaffirmed the Sharia Quality Rating of Jordan Islamic Bank (JIB) at AA (SQR) for the ninth consecutive year for the bank’s perseverance to conform to the high standards of Sharia principles in accordance with the regulatory amendments in corporate governance framework of Islamic banks in Jordan. The report issued by IIRA at the end of January 2018 indicated that granting this rating to  JIB, which is considered the oldest Islamic bank and the third largest of all banks in Jordan, is based on the bank’s adoption of the regulatory amendments in corporate governance for Sharia compliant banks to align with best practices, enhance oversight mechanism in the conduct of the Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) and  internal sharia audit and compliance and rebalance the focus on various stakeholders, particularly on investment account holders. The bank has inserted a new section in its adopted code of corporate governance for protecting the rights of investment account holders and disclosed them with a section of the website. However, JIB’s Sharia governance infrastructure is boosted with the bank’s independent SSB comprising 4 well reputed scholars along with the presence of  highly qualified internal sharia audit staff. The report commended the bank’s ability  to enhance its banking position in the local market with a branching network  comprising 100 branches and offices, in addition to achieve balanced growth and sound financial indicators, while keeping pace with enhancements in technology and innovation in services and products , its contribution to charitable purposes and initiatives towards social responsibility including its reliance on solar energy by establishing two power generation system to cover some branches and offices, providing Al-Qard AlHassan for justified social purposes, providing donations and Mutual Insurance Fund to achieve social collaboration. Moreover, the bank operates comprehensive training programs with specific reference to sharia related trainings for its staff and other beneficiaries. On this occasion, Mr. Musa Shihadeh, CEO- General Manager of JIB expressed how much pleased he is with the bank’s continuation to maintain Sharia Quality Rating  in an assertion of achieving high Sharia quality standards in compliance with principles of Islamic Sharia and in line with instructions of corporate governance of Islamic banks approved by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ). It is worth mentioning that IIRA  has reaffirmed the credit ratings of JIB on the international scale with foreign currency  at BB+/A 3 and local  currency at BBB-/A3.On the national scale, ratings have been reaffirmed  at A+(jo)/A1(jo). Outlook on the assigned ratings is stable.