Press Release from Mufti Ebrahim Desai, Ex-Chairman of the Shari’ah Board of FNB Islamic Finance (15 Sha’baan 1433, 05 July 2012)

About ten years ago we were approached by First National Bank to design an
asset finance product that would be Shari’ah Compliant. After overcoming
numerous challenges, Wesbank Islamic Finance was launched in 2004 with our
support and supervision. The success thereof gave rise to an Islamic window
within FNB known as FNB Islamic Finance.

The division turned out to be a huge success, and new products were
introduced with many more in the pipeline. We always enjoyed the cordial
support and commitment of senior executives within the bank. Despite
repeated requests, the members of the Shari’ah Board declined from accepting
any remuneration for their services as members of the Board. The Bank always
appreciated our services despite our more principled and precautionary
approach and looked forward to our continued engagement until this last
moment.

However, within the recent past, a change of guard within the Bank took
place. Under the new non-Muslim senior executives we discerned a change of
attitude and lack of drive to be committed to the more conservative approach
we adhere to. In order to steer the ship into clearer waters, a meeting was
held with the Shari’ah Board, the Bank’s senior executives and prominent
businessmen from the Muslim community. Concerns were ironed out and a new pathway chalked out going forward.

It is with utter disappointment that we subsequently learnt that we were
clearly lied to by these executives of the bank at that meeting. Our
complaint thereafter to more senior executives fell on deaf ears.
Independent clients of FNB, who were part of the discussions and
correspondences, have expressed their shocking dismay at the Bank’s conduct.

Honesty, integrity and trust are the cornerstones of our involvement. In the
light of such untenable breakdown in TRUST, the entire Shari’ah Board has
immediately resigned.

This decision is taken after broad consultation with Ulama and Deeni
conscious leading and influential businessmen.

Those who wish to deal with FNB Islamic Finance may do so on the clear
understanding that we cannot vouch for their products. Those products that
we had endorsed will remain valid for as long as there are no changes.
However, as we no longer supervise the implementation, we cannot endorse the same.

We take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Ebrahim
Patel, who has retired from the position of CEO of Islamic Finance, for his
unflinching dedication to the promotion of Islamic Banking, and we wish him
well in his new endeavours. He will be remembered as a pioneer in pure and
uncompromising based Islamic Banking.

We reiterate our commitment to serving the Muslim community for the pleasure of Allah Ta’ala, and believe that the concept of Islamic banking has a
promising future ahead provided it is accompanied with the commitment to
doing things the correct way.

May Allah Ta’ala guide us all.

Mufti Ebrahim Desai