The Chancellor Guide to the Legal and Shari'a Aspects of Islamic Finance Authors

Chapter 15: Product Innovation: Derivatives and Hedge Funds

By Dr Humayon Dar and Robert Rilk

Dr Humayon Dar
Chief Executive Officer BMB Islamic UK Limited:

Dr Humayon Dar is the Chief Executive Officer of BMB Islamic, with offices in London and Dubai.

He is a leading player in the Shari'a advisory business, having been associated with most of the recent innovative developments in Islamic banking & finance, including but not limited to structuring Islamic put options, Shari'a-compliant short-selling techniques, and Islamic financial futures contracts. His most recent contribution to the Islamic financial industry is in the form of first-ever Islamic SRI screening methodology, bound to be a pathbreaking development in Islamic investing.

As CEO of BMB Islamic UK Limited and a member of its own and other Shari'a Supervisory Boards, Dr Dar is actively involved in enhancing Shari'a authenticity of Islamic financial products. His work was acknowledged by Euromoney in 2006 and 2007, when the team led by him received the "Best Islamic Advisory & Assurance" award for two consecutive years.

Dr Dar holds a BSc (Hons) and MSc (both in Islamic Economics) from the International Islamic University Islamabad, where he studied with a number of top Islamic jurists and Muslim thinkers. He also has an MPhil and PhD (both in Economics) from Cambridge University, where he conducted research on Islamic finance. His post-doctoral research has exclusively been on Islamic economics, banking and finance.

Dr Dar is widely consulted by corporates, governments and regulatory bodies on matters related with Islamic banking & finance, and is frequently interviewed by print and electronic media including the Financial Times, BBC, and CNN.

Robert Rilk
Senior Advisor
BNP Paribas Najmah, BNPP's global Islamic banking unit

Robert Rilk is Senior Advisor at BNP Paribas Najmah, the bank’s global Islamic banking unit based in Bahrain.

In addition, he conducts and supports research in the field of Islamic banking, most recently by lecturing at the Durham Islamic Finance Summer School 2008 (Durham, UK) and as speaker at the ISDB 3rd International Conference on Islamic Banking and Finance, Karachi, Pakistan, November 2008.

Prior to joining BNPP, Robert worked more than 5 years as associate lawyer with a major Swiss boutique law firm, specialising in cross border economic law, Econcrime and banking law.

Currently he is finalising a PhD on the issue of innovative Shari´a-compliant investment instruments under Swiss investment law (University of Zurich Law School, supervision by Prof. Dr. Anton K. Schnyder).

Robert has earned masters degrees in law from Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg i. Br., Germany, and UT 1 Toulouse, France, and been admitted to both the bars of Germany (Freiburg Bar) and Switzerland (Zurich Bar Association). Professional training led him to Tunis (AHK Tunis), Geneva (International Commission of Jurists) and Cairo (German Embassy Cairo).