Shariah Advisory Council (SAC) in the Malaysian lslamic Financial Institutions: Features and legal issues

Shariah Advisory Council ('SAC') is established under the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009 (Act 701).SAC acts as an authority for the ascertainment of lslamic law for the purposes of lslamic banking/financial business. The Central Bank of Malaysia and the lslamic Financial institutions ('IFIs') shall consult SAC in respect of lslamic banking/financial business and affairs. The decision of SAC is binding on IFls, the Central Bank of Malaysia, the Shariah Committee, the court of law and the arbitrators on matters pertaining to lslamic banking/financial matters. This paper highlights the features that SAC have in the context of Malaysian lFls through the existing legal framework.Further, it discusses some issues concerning SAC.This paper is a fruit of a pure legal research on the features and issues of SAC in the Malaysian IFls.At the ending part of this paper, the authors provide certain recommendations in regard to the issues discussed