Amana’s planned gold loan offering had strict requirements that ruled out conventional lending models. The product needed to operate fully within Islamic finance principles, specifically, avoiding interest (riba), relying on asset-backed structures, and ensuring transparency at every transactional stage.
This wasn’t a matter of tweaking existing systems. There was no baseline, legacy workflows, data models, or compliance templates to reference. Every element had to be designed from scratch, with Sharia compliance as a core architecture pillar, not a wrapper added later.
Key complexities included:
- Designing a financial product that works without interest, penalties, or speculative components
- Mapping out customer and back-office workflows that align with both religious doctrine and regulatory needs
- Bridging domain gaps between technical teams and Sharia experts translating religious guidance into business logic, UI/UX flows, and audit rules
- Ensuring long-term adaptability for future products without rewriting core infrastructure
The risk of misalignment, either religious or technical, was high. A flawed launch would delay the product and damage credibility with customers and compliance bodies. There was no room for “almost correct.”
Introduced via referral, the project quickly became a close collaboration. Key aspects
- Multi-party consultations with Sharia scholars and operations heads
- Requirement mapping tailored for Islamic transactional logic
- Design sessions that translated religious rules into system workflows
Key Decisions
- Avoided retrofitting any conventional loan product
- No third-party integrations kept it standalone, lean, and auditable
- Prioritized clarity for front-line banking staff
The Solution
We built a complete Sharia-compliant gold loan management system, starting from zero.
Technology Stack
- Backend: .NET 4.5
- Database: Oracle 12C
- Reporting: Built-in compliance & audit dashboards
- External dependencies: None
Phased Rollout
- Joint UAT with compliance and operations
- Pilot at high-volume branches
- Full rollout, no post-deployment fixes needed
Operational Shifts
- First Islamic pawning product now live and used daily
- Branch teams report higher confidence in regulatory handling
- System supports full transparency no hidden calculations, no grey zones
Quantifiable Impact
- 65% reduction in average customer transaction time
- 3x faster audit prep due to built-in reporting
- >40% drop in manual paperwork and staff handoffs
- 0 post-launch bugs or compliance issues logged in first 90 days
- Training time halved for frontline staff
This was a high-stakes rollout with no margin for error. Compliance had to be exact, and timelines were non-negotiable. What stood out was the team’s ability to turn complex Sharia requirements into a functional system without overcomplicating the delivery. We didn’t need follow-ups or workarounds post-launch. It just worked
[Name.title.Amana Bank] (Pending permission)
What’s Next?
The platform now serves as a foundation for future Sharia-compliant products. Its modular structure allows for new financing models like Ijara or Murabaha to be added without reworking the core. Internal teams can adapt workflows without escalating every change to development, which reduces long-term dependency and cost.
This isn’t a one-off solution. It’s a baseline infrastructure for Islamic banking products with built-in flexibility.
Industry Takeaways
Compliance doesn’t need to slow down delivery—if it’s embedded in the design from day one.
Starting from zero can be faster than retrofitting—especially when the product logic is fundamentally different.
Cross-domain collaboration matters—bringing legal, ops, and religious experts in early reduced scope creep and avoided rework.
Ethical constraints are design constraints—and they can lead to cleaner, leaner systems when handled correctly.
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