how islamic banking practices work
there are more than 560 banks and over 1 900 mutual funds around the world that comply with islamic principles between 2015 and 2021 islamic financial assets grew to about 4 trillion from 2 17 trillion and are projected to rise to roughly 5 9 trillion by 2026 according to a 2022 report by the islamic corporation for the development of private sector icd and refinitiv 1this growth is largely due to the rising economies of muslim countries especially those that have benefited from oil price increases the global islamic finance industry grew in 2021 and 2022 due to increased bond issuance and a continuing economic recovery in the financial markets according to s p global ratings islamic assets also managed to expand over 10 in 2020 despite the pandemic 2islamic banking is grounded in the tenets of the islamic faith as they relate to commercial transactions the principles of islamic banking are derived from the quran which is the central religious text of islam in islamic banking all transactions must comply with shariah the legal code of islam based on the teachings of the quran 3 the rules that govern commercial transactions in islamic banking are referred to as fiqh al muamalat employees of institutions that abide by islamic banking are trusted to not deviate from the fundamental principles of the quran while they are conducting business when more information or guidance is necessary islamic bankers turn to learned scholars or use independent reasoning based on scholarship and customary practices one of the primary differences between conventional banking systems and islamic banking is that islamic banking prohibits usury and speculation shariah strictly prohibits any form of speculation or gambling which is referred to as maisir 4shariah also prohibits taking interest on loans in addition any investments involving items or substances that are prohibited in the quran including alcohol gambling and pork are also prohibited 5 in this way islamic banking can be considered a culturally distinct form of ethical investing an islamic bank is entirely operated using islamic principles while an islamic window refers to services that are based on islamic principles provided by a conventional bank some commercial banks offer islamic banking services through dedicated windows or sections to earn money without the typical practice of charging interest islamic banks use equity participation systems equity participation means if a bank lends money to a business the business will pay back the loan without interest and instead give the bank a share in its profits if the business defaults or doesn t earn a profit then the bank also doesn t benefit in general islamic banking institutions tend to be more risk averse in their investment practices as a result they typically avoid business that could be associated with economic bubbles history of islamic bankingthe practices of islamic banking are usually traced back to businesspeople in the middle east who started engaging in financial transactions with their european counterparts during the medieval era at first they used the same financial principles as the europeans however over time as trading systems developed and european countries started establishing local branches of their banks in the middle east some of these banks adopted the local customs of the region where they were newly established primarily no interest financial systems that worked on a profit and loss sharing method by adopting these practices these european banks could also serve the needs of local businesspeople who were muslim beginning in the 1960s islamic banking resurfaced in the modern world and since 1975 many new interest free banks have opened 6though the majority of these islamic banking institutions were founded in muslim countries islamic banks also opened in western europe during the early 1980s in addition national interest free banking systems have been developed by the governments of iran sudan and to a lesser extent pakistan 7example of islamic bankingthe mit ghamr savings bank established in 1963 in egypt is commonly referred to as the first example of islamic banking in the modern world when mit ghamr lent money to businesses it did so based on a profit sharing model 8the mit ghamr project was closed in 1967 due to political factors but during its year of operations the bank exercised a great deal of caution only approving about 40 of its business loan applications however in economically good times the bank s default ratio was said to be zero 9