National Bonds Corporation Review - Halal Finance Products

National Bonds Corporation Sole Proprietorship P.S.C. was established in March 2006 with AED 150 million paid-up capital and is wholly owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the emirate's sovereign investment arm. It describes its core proposition as the first all-in-one Shari'a-compliant Mudarabah-based saving scheme in the world: customers buy into a single managed pool rather than opening deposits, and the company invests that pool across money market instruments, sukuk and income-generating real estate. Licensing is through the SCA (Company ID CP-0000034; Category 2 Dealing in Investment licence 20200000170 covering profit-sharing asset management and fund management; Category 5 Arranging and Advice licence 20200000100), with audits by the Dubai Government Financial Audit Authority, the Shari'a Supervisory Board and international external auditors.

The 2025 results, announced 1 April 2026 as the company marked 20 years, are its strongest ever: bondholders' funds passed AED 18 billion (up 14% year on year), the bondholder count passed one million, regular savers grew 37%, corporate liquidity and treasury solutions grew 28%, digital savings grew 72%, and returns of up to 4.45% were distributed for the year. Cumulatively the company reports more than AED 4 billion in profits and rewards distributed since inception, including AED 830 million in prizes, and 232 customers turned into millionaires through its programs.

The retail shelf spans roughly twenty products. The base layer is Saving Bonds: AED 10 units from AED 100, no minimum balance fees, redeemable flexibly, participating in the pool's declared distribution and the AED 36 million Rewards Program (two AED 1 million quarterly winners, monthly luxury cars, plus regular-saver and iPhone draws). Above it sit structured plans: Term Sukuk (AED 10,000 minimum, 3/6/9/12-month tenors, weekly updated anticipated rates, monthly payout on 1-year plans, capital protection per the published Mudarabah fatwa), Second Salary (AED 1,000 a month minimum, 3-to-20-year accumulation at 3.25% anticipated then a chosen income period), myPlan (automated direct debit from AED 100 with escalating prize chances), Accelerator, Flexi Term, EIBOR Plus (up to 0.5% over 3-month EIBOR as anticipated profit), My Million, USD Certificates, Emirati Payout (upfront anticipated returns for nationals), education and emergency plans, the Global Savings Club for employee groups, Tejouri, and charity-linked Sukuk al Waqf and Sukuk Al Noor. The corporate side covers treasury placements and the Golden Pension Plan, launched 11 October 2022, which lets employers fund end-of-service benefits as lump sums or monthly contributions into per-employee accounts, with employee voluntary top-ups from AED 100 a month and app-level visibility of balances, profit and prizes.

Shari'a governance is the institution's defining strength. The Shari'a Supervisory Board is drawn from Minhaj Advisory and chaired by Sheikh Prof. Yousef Abdullah Al Shubaily, one of the region's most prominent Shariah scholars, with Sheikh Prof. Nazih Hammad as deputy chairman, Sheikh Prof. Mohammad Abdul Rahim Sultan Al Olama and Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Saleh Almarzooqi as members. Where most Gulf institutions stop at naming scholars, National Bonds publishes the underlying instruments: the Information Memorandum and Master Client Agreement, a Mudarabah Capital Protection Fatwa, a Profit Weightages Fatwa explaining how different products share the pool's profit, the Sukuk al Waqf fatwa and a Zakat Shari'a Pronouncement for 2025. The weightages fatwa is the key document for understanding why an 'up to 4.45%' year translates into materially different rates by product and holding pattern.

The critical read: National Bonds pairs best-in-class governance disclosure with below-average price disclosure. Only Term Sukuk and EIBOR Plus put forward-looking numbers in public; everything else resolves after year end. The prize program, while structured permissibly as promotional gifts, is doing marketing work that a published rate card would do in a bank. None of this undermines the institution's soundness; it does mean an engaged saver should read the weightages fatwa, prefer the products with stated anticipated rates for serious money, and verify each January what their actual product actually paid.