REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTANT SERVICES – SELECTION OF FIRMS)

 

Entity: Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB)

Project Name: Islamic Finance Legal Framework Guidelines and Database Project

Sector: Islamic Banking and Finance

Mode of Financing: Islamic Finance Grant

Financing No: ZZZ2852

 

The Islamic Development Bank Institute (IsDBI) has approved a grant for Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) to establish a comprehensive global database and an interactive digital platform for Islamic finance legislations, providing centralized access to relevant legal texts, comparative legal analysis, and guidance to support harmonization efforts across jurisdictions. Additionally, the project aims to develop a principle-based legal framework that facilitates the adaptation of national laws and regulations to the specificities of Islamic finance, based on sound legal reasoning and best practices.  

The main objective of the assignment is to design, develop, deploy, and operationalize a secure, scalable, and AI-enabled Islamic Finance Legislation Database (IFLD) platform that enables the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) to manage, review, classify, search, retrieve, compare, and disseminate Islamic finance-related legal and regulatory materials across jurisdictions. To achieve this, the project focuses on delivering a web-based legislation database and law library equipped with content management, document ingestion, version control, and role-based access controls. It integrates AI-assisted workflows for text extraction, semantic search, and automated tagging using IFSB's approved taxonomy, backed by essential human-in-the-loop maker-checker controls for expert validation. Finally, the scope encompasses full testing, deployment in an agreed hosting environment, and comprehensive documentation, training, and post-implementation support to ensure IFSB can independently operate and maintain the platform.

The project comprises six key components: conducting inception activities, requirements validation, and solution architecture design; developing the core web-based platform with content management and security features; implementing AI-enabled document processing, OCR, semantic search, and taxonomy tagging; establishing human-in-the-loop review workflows with maker-checker controls for expert validation; executing comprehensive testing, deployment, and operationalization; and delivering technical documentation, user training, and knowledge transfer to support long-term maintenance by IFSB.

The draft Terms of Reference (ToR) for the assignment is attached to Annex-1.

IsDBI now invites eligible international consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the listed services in the draft ToR. Interested Consultants must provide specific information that demonstrates that they are fully qualified to perform the services (availability of appropriate experience and skillful staff confirmed by brochures, description of similar assignments in analogous conditions, etc.) including expertise in LegalTech/RegTech, software engineering, and artificial intelligence.

The shortlisting criteria / sub-criteria are:

• Firm Qualifications and Relevant Experience: The Consultant (individual firm, joint venture, or association) must demonstrate its core business and a minimum operational track record in software engineering, LegalTech/RegTech platform development, and artificial intelligence solutions. The Consultant must demonstrate technical and managerial capability, evidenced by successful completion of similar assignments involving the design, development, and deployment of secure, scalable web-based legal, regulatory, or digital knowledge-management platforms equipped with AI/ML, NLP, OCR, and semantic search capabilities. Specific institutional experience working with international organizations, multilateral development banks (MDBs), standard-setting bodies, or financial regulators is required, with prior experience in Islamic finance or regulatory frameworks considered an advantage. (Note: Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage).   
• Managerial and Technical Staffing Capability: The Consultant must demonstrate the availability of qualified permanent and backstopping technical and managerial staff with relevant professional backgrounds, technical certifications, and domain expertise. The firm’s staffing base must collectively demonstrate competence across core organizational functional areas, including solution architecture, LegalTech/RegTech systems, artificial intelligence and NLP/search technologies, full-stack database development, information security and data governance, and technology transfer. (Note: Individual Key Experts for the assignment will be evaluated at the RFP/proposal stage and are not evaluated at the shortlisting stage).   
• Technical and Operational Standards: Consultants/JVs must explicitly confirm their capability to configure the platform to apply, manage, update, and audit the IFSB-approved legal taxonomy without assuming responsibility for substantive taxonomy development or legal coding decisions. The consultant must commit to complete disclosure of all proposed third-party tools, AI models, APIs, OCR engines, open-source components, and hosting environments, ensuring strict compliance with data security, confidentiality, non-transfer of non-public data to third-party tools, and conflict-of-interest requirements.
• Technical and Managerial Capacity for Implementation: The Consultant (firm, joint venture, or association) must demonstrate general organizational capacity and operational readiness to deliver assignments of comparable scope, complexity, and duration. The firm should outline its standard implementation methodologies, quality assurance mechanisms, and resource mobilization capacity to support project execution across all phases—from system design and AI integration to deployment and knowledge transfer. (Note: A detailed project work plan and staffing mobilization schedule are not required at the EOI stage and will be requested only from shortlisted firms during the RFP stage).   
• Data Ownership and Institutional Delivery: All reports, software configurations, database models, metadata, system architecture designs, user manuals, and project deliverables generated under the assignment are the property of the beneficiary. Deliverables must be provided in editable formats subject to formal review, validation, and acceptance by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB).

(a) The Consultant should demonstrate institutional experience in the design and delivery of digital platforms, specifically regarding the development of legal, regulatory, public-sector, policy, knowledge-management, document-management, or law-library systems.

(b) Proven record of successful similar assignments involving secure, scalable web-based systems and the integration of AI/ML, NLP, OCR, and semantic search capabilities for the benefit of international organisations, multilateral development banks, regulators, standard-setting bodies, or public institutions.

(c) The firm should demonstrate the technical and managerial capacity to execute the assignment, including a multidisciplinary project team featuring a Project Manager / Solution Architect, alongside specialized experts in Legal/RegTech, AI/NLP and Search, Full-Stack Platform Development, and Information Security / Data Governance.

(d) The firm should demonstrate capabilities and experience in delivering the expectations outlined in the draft ToR in Annex 1 (Attached).

 

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to Part 01, Chapter 01, Paragraphs 1.12.1 and 1.12.2 of the Guidelines for Procurement of Consultancy Services under Islamic Development Bank Project Financing, April 2019, revised in February 2023 (the “Procurement Guidelines”), setting forth IsDB’s policy on conflict of interest, available at https://www.isdb.org/project-procurement/documents.   

International Consultants may associate with other firms to enhance their qualifications but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of a joint venture and/or a sub-consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected.

 

A consultant will be selected in accordance with the Quality Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method as set out in the Procurement Guidelines.

 

Interested consultants may obtain further information at the address below during office hours; 8:30 to 16:30 hours Kuala Lumpur Local Time.

 

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by e-mail) by the date of 30 September 2026.

 

ISLAMIC FINANCIAL SERVICES BOARD (IFSB)

Attention:       Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB)

Email:            ifsb_procument@ifsb.org