SITR launches Bahrain operations for shariah compliance tech

SITR Compliance Technology, an early-stage Bahraini regulatory technology startup supported by the Bahrain Economic Development Board, has launched its operations in Bahrain. The announcement was made on 3 November 2026 at Gateway Gulf 2026, an investment forum hosted by the board in Manama.

The company has made Manama its headquarters and says it will serve institutions in Bahrain and across the GCC. As it scales, it plans to hire Bahraini talent across business development, operations and product.

SITR builds shariah compliance infrastructure for Islamic financial institutions. Its platform reviews executed transactions against the rulings of an institution’s shari’a supervisory board on a continuous basis.

It is aimed at Islamic banks across retail, commercial and wholesale activity, as well as investment funds, exchange-traded funds, brokerages and consumer finance providers. Its coverage spans products from Murabaha, Tawarruq and Ijarah to Musharaka, Mudaraba, Wakala and Sukuk.

The platform connects to core banking systems through read-only integrations that sit outside the transaction execution path. It can also ingest contracts and supporting documents in the formats institutions already hold, including scanned PDFs, so banks can adopt it without disrupting live operations.

Internal shari’a audit has traditionally relied on periodic, sample-based reviews. SITR says its approach gives compliance and audit teams visibility across the full transaction population.

It identifies issues such as incorrect execution sequences, documentation gaps and changes to core banking parameters before they develop into non-compliant income and purification obligations. The platform is designed around the Central Bank of Bahrain’s Shari’a Governance requirements and AAOIFI standards, and it supports the internal audit function while complementing independent external shari’a audit.

Founder and CEO Yousuf Tyabji said: “Islamic finance has grown into a global industry, yet much of the work of verifying Shariah compliance still happens after the fact and on a sample basis.”