KPMG has created a new Global Islamic Finance Leadership Team to support the continued growth and development of its Global Islamic Finance practice and meet the increasingly sophisticated and global needs of clients in the Islamic Finance industry.
The team is made up of senior Islamic Finance practitioners from KPMG’s global network of experts, and is headed in Qatar by Omar Mahmood, partner, who is also head of MESA Financial Services. The global team is overseen by Samer Hijazi, director of Financial Services in the UK.
Mahmood, said: “Islamic finance is a big growth area in the Middle East as it is growing 50% faster than the overall banking sector. It, therefore, has rich potential for businesses in the future and KPMG has considerable local and global expertise in this sector.”
“Our new team will draw upon KPMG’s key insights and expertise in Islamic finance to give our clients access to an outstanding depth and breadth of knowledge in the audit, tax and advisory areas — wherever in the world they need it.”
KPMG’s new Global Islamic Finance Leadership Team will be able to provide clients with world class advice on some of the main issues facing banks in this industry, such as effectively capturing customer needs, the rapid development of products and providing a standard format for them, engaging the Sharia board early on for approval, and ensuring that management information systems are compatible with Islamic products.
The team will help support KPMG’s local client service teams in the development of new products and services for clients operating in the Islamic Finance industry.
The team is comprised of the following — Samer Hijazi (KPMG in the UK); Omar Mahmood (KPMG in Qatar); Mohamed Tariq (KPMG in the UAE and Oman); Mahesh Balasubramanian (KPMG in Bahrain); Kashif Jahangiri (KPMG in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait); Ahmad Nasri Abdul Wahab (KPMG in Malaysia); and Ahmed Jaffer (KPMG in South Africa).