What does a bank's Sharia Board do and who sits on it?

It is an independent committee made up of accredited scholars of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Sharia and Islamic economics.

Its core role is to review all of the bank's contracts, its products and its software systems and to make sure they are free of riba (usury) or gharar (excessive uncertainty) before they are launched. It also carries out periodic inspection (a Sharia Audit) of transactions that have actually been executed, and its decisions are binding on the bank's management.