Trowers & Hamlins with AUBUK on its conversion to a fully compliant islamic bank

Trowers & Hamlins advised the UK branch of Bahrain-headquartered Ahli United Bank (AUBUK) on its conversion from a conventional bank to a fully compliant Islamic bank, with the conversion being the first of its kind in the UK banking industry.

About the conversion

Trowers & Hamlins advised on all aspects of the conversion process from advice on the options available to the bank to achieve the goal of becoming an Islamic bank through to the review and update of existing Shariah compliant products. They also advised on the preparation of new Shariah compliant products which will be offered by the bank shortly following the conversion (including ensuring those products being made available to retail customers comply with UK financial services requirements) and advice on its strategy for communicating the changes to its customers. 

Trowers & Hamlins’ team

Partners Simon Valner, Helen Fysh and Katharine Lewis (banking and finance, London) led the team. There was wider involvement in the transaction from the real estate, corporate, dispute resolution & litigation and tax teams in the UK as well as assistance from colleagues in Trowers’ Oman and Kuala Lumpur offices. This included support from partners Salman Ahmed, Nick Edmondes, Victoria Robertson, Alex Burton, Nick Harrisingh, Adrian Jones, Nathan Williams, Debopam Dutta, William Clements and Elias Moubarak, senior associates Lilli Sutherland, Jon Grosvenor, Laura Pennells and Cara Gillingham, associates Sam Robinson, Abdullah Puri, Alyson Phung, Jian-Jie Phang, Daniel Butt and Tiffany Tan, trainee solicitor Hannah Chima, paralegals Olena Sobchenko and Oksana Maslianko and professional support lawyer David Zong.