Enhancing Shariah Audit Practices in Islamic Financial Institutions in Malaysia

It is undeniable that Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in Malaysia are growing with a positive impact on the national economic growth. In order to sustain and maintain Shariah compliance in Islamic financial industry, adequate Shariah audit practices are necessary to ensure that the operation of IFIs should be in parallel with Shariah guidelines and policies set by the authority. In order to equip Islamic industry practitioners with adequate Shariah audit practices, Faculty of Economics and Muamalat (FEM), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) has introduced a professional Shariah Audit Training (SAT) program for IFIs staffs. SAT is a program that covers various aspects on Shariah audit practices starting from Shariah principles, Shariah governance, Shariah audit program, Shariah audit process, Shariah audit fieldwork, Shariah risk management and Shariah audit communications. Modules used in SAT have been developed based on collaboration between academic institutions and industry players in order to ensure that the knowledge and practice in the industry are harmonized and relevant. The series of trainings conducted in the program are believed to achieve the programme’s ultimate objective which is to produce Shariah auditors who are qualified and trained to fill the gap for Islamic finance industry. The objective is to produce talents with adequate Shariah audit knowledge. This study provides the result of the SAT program toward IFIs practitioners’ skills and knowledge on Shariah audit practices.