I am an internal auditor working at a major U.S. bank that provides both commercial banking and investment banking (broker-dealer for stock trading, etc.). My work is only related to the investment banking division (global markets). I have no dealings with services such as CDs, loans, checking or savings accounts, home/commercial mortgages, credit cards, etc. I audit the bank's trading activities and am mainly assigned to equities (stocks) and electronic trading.

Very rarely, I have to review some trading activity (algorithms, etc.) related to bonds, mortgage-backed securities, interest rates, etc., to ensure compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements. Even when I review bond or mortgage securities trading, it is only from the perspective of system access provisioning, approval of trading algorithms, and the implementation of controls to prevent invalid or erroneous trading activity. It is not about the actual details of trading.

My employer (the bank) has significant operations in investment banking, even though commercial banking generates far more income. According to the publicly available fourth-quarter 2024 earnings report, net income from investment banking accounted for about 12% of the total income. Of this 12%, approximately 35% came from the equities business (i.e., the bank earns a substantial amount of money from non-interest sources). I have previously seen fatāwā from respected sources indicating that my job is permissible since I am not involved in recording or witnessing interest transactions.

One thing I have recently realized is that even though my audit work focuses on investment banking, which generates significant income for the bank, my paycheck is issued by the bank’s parent entity. It does not come specifically from the investment banking division. Since the audit function is independent of the bank’s various divisions, it is considered a core function that provides support across all divisions.

I would like to request your opinion regarding the permissibility of my job and salary. I would greatly appreciate your time and help with this request.