Saudi fintech platform Tamara has secured a Fatwa certifying the Shariah integrity of its buy-now-pay-later financing scheme, supporting the start-up’s market expansion plan.
Tamara’s Shariah compliance approval was granted by Bahrain-based Shariyah Review Bureau and follows a successful seed-funding round at the start of 2021, which grabbed headlines as the largest seed-funding round in Saudi Arabia at US$6 million.
“Fintechs have the same requirements as legacy institutions when it comes to Shariah supervisory programs and periodic Shariah audits and to bolster Shariah compliance,” said Abdulmohsin, the director of products at Tamara.
The Shariah approval is expected to facilitate the start-up’s growth strategy in Muslim-majority GCC. Tamara received the greenlight from the Saudi Central Bank last October to experiment products within the latter’s regulatory sandbox and is working toward a full license. It plans to expand its operations in Saudi as well as expand into the UAE.