Christoph Koster

Christoph Koster is Chief Executive Officer of ruya, a digital-first Islamic community bank headquartered in Ajman and licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. Ruya launched in 2024 with retail and business banking built around Sharia principles. Under Koster, the bank introduced access to Bitcoin and other virtual-asset investments through a technology partnership with Fuze, positioning the service as Sharia-compliant and focused on responsible investment.

What ruya Does

Ruya offers personal and business accounts, cards, deposits and financing under Islamic-finance principles. The virtual-asset feature uses Fuze infrastructure. The exact mechanics of whether the customer owns assets directly, who executes and custodies them, which assets are supported, applicable fees, withdrawal rights and eligibility should be confirmed from current ruya terms and the app. Ruya's bank license belongs to Ruya Community Islamic Bank LLC; Fuze and every virtual-asset service are not separately banks. Bank-deposit protection does not necessarily cover virtual assets. Sharia-compliance conclusions for specific products should be attributed to ruya's Sharia board and Higher Sharia Authority framework, not stated as universally applying to all Bitcoin trading.

Career Background

Earlier in his career, Koster worked at Roland Berger in restructuring and turnaround practice during the global financial crisis. From 2010 onward, he relocated to the Middle East and worked across Bahrain and the UAE. His background includes strategy, customer experience and private-banking/asset-management leadership at Emirates NBD, executive-management roles at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office involving corporate venture capital and investment-platform development, and a Chief Operating Officer role at a G42 joint venture where he helped build the business from incubation and oversaw portfolio asset management.

Current 2026 Work

As of 2025–2026, Koster oversaw virtual-asset integration, embedded-banking partnerships for fintechs and SMEs, and expansion for non-bank financial institutions and virtual-asset businesses. Current 2026 embedded-banking partnerships should be covered only where ruya confirms them. Exact Bitcoin/virtual-asset product availability in the current app and whether it supports external withdrawals should be verified from current ruya product terms.