What is the Ruling of Developing a Supporting Application for a Bank?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Assalamu Alaikum, I am an employee of X. I am developing and supporting the applications created by companies X and Y. The application’s name is Fenergo which is an enterprise Client life cycle management.
This application is sold to investment company Z usually banks, and I do simple customizing of the application and then hand over the application to the investment company.
The application doesn’t involve riba. It is just the onboarding of the customers and doing their KYC / due diligence and anti-money laundering features.
So getting a salary is permissible or haram from company X?
Please give me the answer as it’s bothering me very much, and I should have a clear understanding of my job.
Answer
I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.
The nature of your job and work is permissible in and of itself. You are developing an application that will have KYC, due diligence, and anti-laundering features. Therefore, it is permissible for you to develop an application for the above reason, even though it might be used in a bank setting, as the application itself has nothing to do with interest.
In principle, one looks at two factors to determine the sharia compliancy of a job:
- The nature of the job description which is to digitally transform the client experience throughout the client lifecycle, improve operational efficiencies and return on investment, manage compliance with KYC, AML, and other regulatory compliance obligations, reduce risk with continuous monitoring of clients and transactions throughout the client lifecycle.
- The majority of the source of the funds from which the employees of the bank are remunerated. You can assume you will be renumerated from the depositor’s funds, admin and service fees, etc.
[Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya; Taqi Usmani, Fiqh al-Buyu’]
I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction in sha Allah.
Related
Future-Proofing Client Lifecycle Management (fenergo.com)
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I pray this helps with your question.
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied within UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.
He started his early education in UK. He went onto complete hifz of Qur’an in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in UK where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then travelled to Karachi, Pakistan.
He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.
He currently resides in UK with his wife. His personal interest is love of books and gardening.
