In 2018 when I moved to Riyadh from Dubai, I was informed by someone in the know that a new AAOIFI Shariah Standard on Sukuk was going to be released later that year.
I was looking forward to its release as I knew that I was going to be working on a lot of Sukuk transactions in my new role and because the available AAOIFI Shariah Standard on Sukuk was thin and not reflective of current market practice.
In reality it wasn’t released that year, nor in the following years. However, towards the end of 2023, I attended a draft hearing of the new AAOIFI Sukuk Standard in Riyadh. The draft standard was impressive, comprehensive and would fundamentally change Sukuk market practice. Clearly a lot of work had gone into it by AAOIFI and the experts who worked on it. I was informed that the standard was expected to be finalised towards the latter part of 2024.
We are now in the latter part of 2026. I do wonder when the final version will be released, what it will look like and how it will be implemented.
