A Passion for Inclusivity and the Arts: Meet the Chief Exec of an Islamic Bank

Mufaddal Idris Khumri, CEO and managing director of the Maldives Islamic Bank, has deep expertise in the sector…

Mufaddal Idris Khumri is an expert in the Islamic banking system, with more than a quarter century of experience under his belt.

His career history includes all fields of commercial banking: business strategy, digital and technology, corporate and retail banking, wealth management, payments, treasury, and risk functions. He established, and headed, two Islamic banking windows in United Arab Emirates. Those provide services based on Islamic principles through conventional banks — in this case, the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (the UAE’s third-largest) and for National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (the country’s leading SME and payments institution).

He started his career with ICICI Bank, India’s second-largest private sector bank, as a management trainee. Prior to this, he had been a columnist for Business Standard, an Indian financial newspaper.

During his tenure in UAE, he launched two Islamic finance companies there with a combined capital base of $162m. He served as managing director of Abu Dhabi Commercial Islamic Finance (ADCIF). At ADCB, he has handled the $1bn India Millennium Deposit portfolio. Mufaddal Idris Khumri has handled more than 20 large IPOs, and the Islamic business at ADCB amounted to more than $6bn.

Prior to joining Maldives Islamic Bank, Khumri was the head of retail business in UAE for Saudi National Bank, Saudi Arabia’s largest, based out of Dubai. At the National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, he served as director of retail banking and payments — in addition to his role as head of Islamic banking, which included the SME and corporate banking portfolio. The retail business in National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah had a gross revenue of more than $700m.

While at ICICI, he played a key role in furthering the non-resident Indian business. He was deputised to the Middle East in early 2000, where he worked with banking partners across all GCC countries for remittances, payments, and investments. He was instrumental in setting up the money2india remittance portal, and creating alliances with banks and exchange houses across the GCC to facilitate staff deputation and strategic alliances.

Mufaddal Idris Khumri has a Master’s in Management Studies and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai. He completed a fintech course from the University of Oxford, and regularly attends seminars and fora as a speaker.

He has held representations in the UAE Banking Federation’s Islamic & Retail Banking Committee. He has held membership status in the Islamic Finance Advisory Council at Dubai International Finance Centre. Khumri writes for Islamic finance publications, and has co-authored a book, Assassinations That Altered the Course of History.

He is a fan of Urdu poetry and classical music, a people-person in the purest sense, and a team player to his core. He is a strong proponent for inclusivity in the workplace, and welcomes the strengths that various ethnicities, nationalities, and skill sets provide.