thumb|alt=image of Dubai Islamic Bank|[[Dubai Islamic Bank]]

Islamic banking, Islamic finance ( masrifiyya 'islamia), or Sharia-compliant finance is banking or financing activity that complies with Sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic finance include mudarabah (profit-sharing and loss-bearing), wadiah (safekeeping), musharaka (joint venture), murabahah (cost-plus), and ijarah (leasing).

Sharia prohibits riba, or usury, generally defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to riba). Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g. pork or alcohol) is also haram ("sinful and prohibited").

These prohibitions have been applied historically in varying degrees in Muslim countries/communities to prevent un-Islamic practices. In the late 20th century, as part of the revival of Islamic identity, a number of Islamic banks formed to apply these principles to private or semi-private commercial institutions within the Muslim community. Their number and size has grown, so that by 2009, there were over 300 banks and 250 mutual funds around the world complying with Islamic principles, and around $2 trillion was Sharia-compliant by 2014. Sharia-compliant financial institutions represented approximately 1% of total world assets, concentrated in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Malaysia. Although Islamic banking still makes up only a fraction of the banking assets of Muslims, since its inception it has been growing faster than banking assets as a whole, and is projected to continue to do so.

The Islamic banking industry has been lauded by devout Muslims for returning to the path of "divine guidance" in rejecting the "political and economic dominance" of the West, that "comply with the formal requirements of Islamic law", but use "ruses and subterfuges to conceal interest", and entail "higher costs, bigger risks" than conventional (ribawi) banks.

History

Usury in Islam

Islamic finance is based upon the belief that "all forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited". The word "riba" literally means "excess or addition", and has been translated as "interest", "usury", "excess", "increase" or "addition".

According to Islamic economists Choudhury and Malik, the elimination of interest followed a "gradual process" in early Islam, "culminating" with a "fully fledged Islamic economic system" under Caliph Umar (634–644 CE).

Other sources (Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Timur Kuran), do not agree, and state that the giving and taking of interest continued in Muslim society "at times through the use of legal ruses (ḥiyal), often more or less openly," including during the Ottoman Empire.

Still another source (International Business Publications) states that during the "Islamic Golden Age" the "common view of riba among classical jurists" of Islamic law and economics was that it was unlawful to apply interest to gold and silver currencies, "but that it is not riba and is therefore acceptable to apply interest to fiat money—currencies made up of other materials such as paper or base metals—to an extent."|group=Note

In the late 19th century Islamic modernists reacted to the rise of European power and influence and the European colonization of Muslim countries by reconsidering the prohibition on interest and whether interest rates and insurance were not among the "preconditions for productive investment" in a functioning modern economy. Syed Ahmad Khan, argued for a differentiation between sinful riba "usury", which they saw as restricted to charges on lending for consumption, and legitimate non-riba "interest", for lending for commercial investment.

However, in the 20th century, Islamic revivalists, Islamists, and other Islamic activists worked to define all interest as riba, to enjoin Muslims to lend and borrow at "Islamic banks" that avoided fixed rates. By the 21st century this Islamic banking movement had created "institutions of interest-free financial enterprises across the world". Loans are permitted in Islam if the interest that is paid is linked to the profit or loss obtained by the investment. The concept of profit acts as a symbol in Islam of equal sharing of profits, losses, and risks.

The movement started with activists and scholars such as Anwar Qureshi, Naeem Siddiqui, Abul A'la Maududi, Muhammad Hamidullah, in the late 1940 and early 1950s.

They believed commercial banks were a "necessary evil," and proposed a banking system based on the concept of mudarabah, where shared profit on investment would replace interest. Further works specifically devoted to the subject of interest-free banking were authored by Muhammad Uzair (1955), Abdullah al-Araby (1967), Mohammad Najatuallah Siddiqui, al-Najjar (1971) and Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.

Since 1970

The involvement of institutions, governments, and various conferences and studies on Islamic banking (the Conference of the Finance Ministers of the Islamic Countries held in Karachi in 1970, the Egyptian study in 1972, the First International Conference on Islamic Economics in Mecca in 1976, and the International Economic Conference in London in 1977) were instrumental in applying the application of theory to practice for the first interest-free banks. At the First International Conference on Islamic Economics, "several hundred Muslim intellectuals, Sharia scholars and economists unequivocally declared ... that all forms of interest" were riba.

The council's decree notwithstanding, over the years a minority of Islamic scholars (Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Mahmud Shaltut, Syed Ahmad Khan, Fazl al-Rahman, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy and Yusuf al-Qaradawi) have questioned whether riba includes all interest payments. Others (Muhammad Akran Khan) have questioned whether riba is a crime like murder and theft, forbidden by Sharia (Islamic law) and subject to punishment by human beings, or simply a sin to be inveighed against, with the reprimand left to God, since "neither the Prophet nor the first four caliphs nor any subsequent Islamic government ever enacted any law against riba."

With an increase in the Muslim population in Europe and the current lack of supply, opportunities will arise for the important role which Islamic finance plays in Europe's economy. In particular, Luxembourg is emerging as a leader and hub for Islamic funds.

Banking

thumb|right|upright|A Jordan Islamic Bank branch in [[Amman]]

While revivalists like Mohammed Naveed insist Islamic banking is "as old as the religion itself with its principles primarily derived from the Quran", secular historians and Islamic modernists see it as a modern phenomenon or "invented tradition".

Early example: Zubayr ibn al-Awwam

It is argued that in practice the fundraising business of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was banking with zero interest. Zubayr pioneered this practice by technically modifying the money-keeping service to be a loan which Zubayr was obligated to pay off, while he also got privilege to manage the money he kept to do his business. Zubayr's practice of accepting deposits while not charging any interest meant Zubayr died with an inflated debt of 2,000,000 Dinar. However, Zubayr invested his clients' deposits in his own lucrative businesses, so his inheritors managed to settle his debts while still leaving an inheritance for his family. After his death, his son Abdullah ibn Zubayr sold the property for 1.600.000 dinar. This practice was allowed according to classical scholar consensus, such as Ibn Taymiyyah in his Majmu Fatawa.

Early banking

According to Timur Kuran, by "the tenth century, Islamic law supported credit and investment instruments" that were "as advanced" as anything in the non-Islamic world, but prior to the 19th century there were no "durable" financial institutions "recognizable as banks" in the Muslim world. The first Muslim majority-owned banks did not emerge until the 1920s.

An early market economy and an early form of mercantilism, sometimes called Islamic capitalism, was developed between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The monetary economy of the period was based on the widely circulated currency the gold dinar, and it tied together regions that were previously economically independent.

A number of economic concepts and techniques were applied in early Islamic banking, including bills of exchange, partnership (mufawada, including limited partnerships, or mudaraba), and forms of capital (al-mal), capital accumulation (nama al-mal), trusts (see Waqf), transactional accounts, loaning, ledgers and assignments. Muslim traders are known to have used the cheque or ṣakk system since the time of Harun al-Rashid (9th century) of the Abbasid Caliphate. Many of these early capitalist concepts were adopted and further advanced in medieval Europe from the 13th century onwards.

20th century

In the middle of the 20th century, some organizational entities were found to offer financial services complying with Islamic laws. The first, experimental, local Islamic bank was established in the late 1950s in a rural area of Pakistan. It charged no interest on its lending.

In 1963, the first modern Islamic bank on record was established in rural Egypt by economist Ahmad Elnaggar to appeal to people who lacked confidence in state-run banks. The profit-sharing experiment, in the Nile Delta town of Mit Ghamr, did not specifically advertise its Islamic nature for fear of being seen as a manifestation of Islamic fundamentalism, which was anathema to the Gamal Nasser regime. Also in that year the Pilgrims Saving Corporation was founded in Malaysia. Although not a bank, it incorporated basic Islamic banking concepts. as by that time there were nine similar banks in the country. In 1972, the Mit Ghamr Savings project became part of Nasr Social Bank, which as of 2016 was still in business in Egypt.

Since 1970

{| class="wikitable center floatright" style="text-align: center; max-width: 12em;"

|+ id="publications-table-caption" style="line-height:130%"| Publications available relating to Islamic finance

|-

! scope="col" | Year

! scope="col" | Number

|-

|prior to 1979||238

|-

|1999||2722

|-

|2006||6484

|-

|style="font-size:88%;line-height:130%" colspan=2 |

Source: Islamic Finance Project Databank

|}

The influx of "petro-dollars" and a "general re-Islamisation" following the 1973 Arab Israeli War and 1973 oil crisis encouraged the development of the Islamic banking sector, and since 1975 it has spread globally.

In 1975, the Islamic Development Bank was set up with the mission of providing funding to projects in its member countries. The first modern commercial Islamic bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, was established in 1979. The first Islamic insurance (or takaful) company – the Islamic Insurance Company of Sudan – was established in 1979. the world's first Islamic mutual fund (which invests only in Sharia-compliant equities), was created in 1986 in Indiana. This growth was temporarily reversed in 1988 in the largest Arab Muslim country, Egypt, when the Egyptian state – worried that Islamist movements were building up a "war chest" and being given financial independence – reversed its tacit support for the industry, and launched a media campaign against Islamic banks.

In 1990 an accounting organization for Islamic financial institutions (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, AAOIFI), was established in Algiers by a group of Islamic financial institutions. Also in that year the Islamic bond market emerged when the first tradable sukuk – the Islamic alternative to conventional bonds – were issued by Shell MDS in Malaysia. The large US-based Citibank began to offer Islamic banking services in 1996 when it established the Citi Islamic Investment Bank in Bahrain. Muslim customers were not persuaded, and a "bad taste" was left "in the mouth" of the market for Islamic financial products. The Islamic Bank of Britain, the first Islamic commercial bank established outside the Muslim world, was not established until 2004. There were over 300 Islamic financial institutions spread over 51 countries, as well as an additional 250 mutual funds complying with Islamic principles. Worldwide, approximately 0.5% of financial assets were estimated to be under Sharia-compliant management according to The Economist magazine.

During the 2008 financial crisis, Islamic banks were not initially impacted by the 'toxic assets' built up on the balance sheets of US banks as these were not Sharia-compliant and not owned by Islamic banks. In 2009, the official newspaper of the Vatican (L'Osservatore Romano) put forward the idea that "the ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service". (The Catholic Church also forbids usury, but began to relax its ban on all interest in the 16th century.)

However, the drop in valuation of real estate and private equity – two segments heavily invested in by Islamic firms – following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Islamic did hurt Islamic financial institutions.

As of 2015, $2.004 trillion in assets were being managed in a Sharia-compliant manner according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report. Of these $342 billion were sukuk. The market for Islamic sukuk bonds in that year was made up of 2,354 sukuk issues, and had become strong enough that several non-Muslim majority states – UK, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg – issued sukuk.

There are multiple Sharia-compliant indexes, created by Sharia screening of companies. Such indexes include DJIM, S&PSI, MSCI and country-based indexes like KMI-Pakistan and SCM-Malaysia.

Principles

To be consistent with the principles of Islamic law (Sharia)—or at least an orthodox interpretation of the law—and guided by Islamic economics, the contemporary movement of Islamic banking and finance prohibits a variety of activities, some of which are not illegal in secular states:

  • Paying or charging interest. "All forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited". Islamic rules on transactions (known as Fiqh al-Muamalat) have been created to prevent use of interest.
  • Investing in businesses involved in activities that are forbidden (haram). These include things such as selling alcohol or pork, or producing media such as gossip columns or pornography. or if the buyer has "deliberately refused" to make a payment.
  • Maisir. This is usually translated as "gambling" but used to mean "speculation" in Islamic finance.
  • Engaging in transactions lacking "'material finality'. All transactions must be "directly linked to a real underlying economic transaction", which excludes "options and most other derivatives".

Money on the most common type of Islamic financing – debt-based contracts – "must be made from a tangible asset that one owns and thus has the right to sell – and in financial transactions it demands that risk be shared." Money cannot be made from money. Another statement of the Islamic banking theory of finance is: "Money has no intrinsic utility; it is only a medium of exchange."

Other restrictions include:

  • Islamic banks are to collect zakat (obligatory religious alms giving) from customers' accounts – at least according to some sources.
  • A board of Sharia experts is to supervise and advise each Islamic bank on the propriety of transactions to "ensure that all activities are in line with Islamic principles". interpretation of the Sharia is more strict in Turkey or Arab countries than in Malaysia, whose interpretation is in turn more strict than the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mohammed Ariff also found less exacting Sharia compliance in Iran, where the Islamic government had decreed "that government borrowing on the basis of a fixed rate of return from the nationalized banking system would not amount to interest" and consequently would be permissible."
  • Risk sharing. Symmetrical risk and return on distribution to participants must be structured such that no one benefits disproportionately from the transaction. or having the same "basic objective" as other private entities, i.e. "maximization of shareholder wealth" (Mohamed Warsame). In a similar vein, Mahmoud El-Gamal states that Islamic finance "is not constructively built from classical jurisprudence". It follows conventional banking and deviates from it "only insofar as some conventional practices are deemed forbidden under Sharia."

A broader description of its principles is given by the Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development bank:

<blockquote>The most important feature of Islamic banking is that it promotes risk sharing between the provider of funds (investor) on the one hand and both the financial intermediary (the bank) and the user of funds (the entrepreneur) on the other hand ... In conventional banking, all this risk is borne in principle by the entrepreneur. </blockquote>

Some proponents (Nizam Yaquby) believe Islamic banking has more far reaching purposes than conventional banking, and declare that the "guiding principles" for Islamic finance include: "fairness, justice, equality, transparency, and the pursuit of social harmony", although others describe these virtues as the natural benefits of following Sharia. (Taqi Usmani describes the virtues as guiding principles in one section of his book on Islamic Banking, and benefits in another.)

Nizam Yaquby, for example, declares that the "guiding principles" for Islamic finance include: "fairness, justice, equality, transparency, and the pursuit of social harmony". "Ethical finance" has been called necessary, or at least desirable, for Islamic finance, as has a "gold-based currency". Taqi Usmani declares that Islamic banking would mean less lending because it paid no interest on loans. This should not be thought of as presenting a problem for borrowers finding funds, because – according to Usmani – it is in part to discourage excessive finance that Islam forbids interest. Zubair Hasan argues that the objectives of Islamic finance as envisaged by its pioneers were "promotion of growth with equity ... the alleviation of poverty ... [and] a long run vision to improve the condition of the Muslim communities across the world."

Some (such as Umar Ibrahim Vadillo) believe the Islamic banking movement has so far failed to follow the principles of Sharia law, or at least failed to follow them sufficiently strictly.

On the other hand, Usmani preached that an Islamic economy free of the "imbalances" in society – such as concentration of "wealth in the hands of the few", or monopolies which paralyze or hinder market forces – would follow from obeying "divine injunctions" by banning interest (along with other Islamic efforts). (Later in his book Introduction to Islamic Finance, he argues that Islamic principles should include "the fulfillment of the needs of the society" giving "preference to the products which may help the common people to raise their standard of living", but that few Islamic banks have followed this path.) Another source (Saleh Abdullah Kamel), described the changes anticipated for the Muslim community by following Islamic approach to economics, banking, finance, etc., as a "move towards economic development, creation of the value added factor, increased exports, less imports, job creation, rehabilitation of the incapacitated and training of capable elements".

thumb|right|A Saba Islamic Bank branch in [[Djibouti (city)|Djibouti City]]

Scriptural basis

The Sharia law that forms the basis of Islamic banking is itself based on the Quran (revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad) and hadith (the body of reports of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that often explain verses in the Quran).

Prohibition of gharar is based on hadith declaring as forbidden gharar, the sale of things like "the birds in the sky or the fish in the water". Maisir is thought to be banned by verses 2:219, 5:90, and 91 in the Quran.

However, "the Islamic evaluation" of modern banking centers around the definition of interest on loans as riba. Twelve verses in the Qur'an deal with riba, the word appearing eight times in total, three times in verses , and once in , , , and . Riba is mentioned numerous times in hadith, including Muhammad's Farewell Sermon.

A number of orthodox scholars point to Quranic verses (2:275–2:280) as declaring riba "categorically prohibited" and "unjust" (zulm), and defining it to mean any payment "over and above the principal" of a loan. (Although at least one source states "it is commonly argued" that riba is "defined by hadith".)

According to the orthodox, an "increase over the principal sum" in loans of cash is riba. An increase over the principal sum in financing a purchase of some product or commodity is another matter. These are not riba according to the orthodox interpretation – at least in some circumstances. (These are sometimes known as "credit sales".) According to noted Islamic scholar Taqi Usmani, this is because in Quran aya 2:275 ("they say, 'Trafficking (trade) is like usury,' [but] God has permitted trafficking, and forbidden usury") "trafficking (trade)" refers to credit sales such as murabaha, the "forbidden usury" refers to charging extra for late payment (late fees), and the "they" refers to non-Muslims who did not understand why if the first was allowed both were not.

Interest and credit sales

While Usmani and other Islamic banking pioneers envisioned credit sales like murâbaḥah being a limited part of the Islamic banking industry and subordinate to profit and loss sharing, it has become the "most common" mode of Islamic financing.

The distinction between credit sales and interest has also come under attack from critics such as Khalid Zaheer and Muhammad Akram Khan, criticizing it from opposite points of view. Zaheer considers profit from credit sales to be riba, the same as interest, and notes the lack of enthusiasm of orthodox scholars (such as the Council of Islamic Ideology) for credit sales-based Islamic banking, which the council calls "no more than a second best solution from the viewpoint of an ideal Islamic system".

Khan calls the distinction "frivolous and laboured", a way of charging interest using another name, necessary because businesses "cannot survive where cash and credit prices are equal".

Others note that in terms of standard accounting practice and truth-in-lending regulations, getting 90 days credit on a Rs 10000 product and paying an extra Rs 500, cost very nearly the same and is considered very nearly the same as paying in cash, using a three-month loan at 20% per annum.

Taqi Usmani, however, explains that this is a "misconception".

Paying more for credit when buying a product ("an exchange of commodities for money") and charging for credit is a violation of Sharia. The cash loan is different because "money has no intrinsic utility". Critics report widespread abuses of "synthetic" murabaha, which are loans with interest in all but name.

Types of Islamic lending

One of the pioneers of Islamic banking, Mohammad Najatuallah Siddiqui, suggested a two-tier mudarabah model as the basis of a riba-free banking. The bank would act as the capital partner in mudarabah accounts with the depositor on one side and the entrepreneur on the other side. (Another pioneer Taqi Uthmani called mudarabah and another profit-sharing form of finance musharakah, the "real and ideal instruments of financing in Shari‘ah".)

However, since Islamic banking also calls for rewarding delayed gratification in the form of "return on investment" on both profit-sharing and credit sales, Islamic scholars and economists have tended to insist that time value of money is a valid concept "provided the rate of discount is the 'rate of return' on capital rather than the rate of interest," a position critics find specious.

Early payment of debt

The opposite of credit sales (i.e. the opposite of charging more in exchange for giving the buyer time to pay) is reduced charges for early payment. This is considered haram by the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali), but not by all jurists according to Ridha Saadullah. He notes that such reductions have been permitted by some companions of the Prophet and some of their followers. This position has been advanced by Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim, and it has, more recently, been adopted by the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the OIC. The Academy decided that "reduction of a deferred debt in order to accelerate its repayment, whether at the request of the debtor or the creditor is permissible under Shariah. It does not constitute forbidden riba if it is not agreed upon in advance and as long as the creditor-debtor relationship remains bilateral."

Islamic laws on trading

thumb|right|An Islamic Development Bank branch in [[Dhaka]]

As noted above, the primary focus of Islamic banking is on financing without interest to avoid riba,

  • Short selling: borrowing/renting shares of stock or some other instruments and selling it, sometimes without possessing it, on the hope that it can be later repurchased at a lower price for a profit. It is traditionally thought to violate the hadith stating "Do not sell which you do not possess," and has been declared impermissible by numerous sources (Raj Bhala, Taqi Usmani,).
  • Day trading: very short term buying and selling of financial instruments. It has been called un-Islamic because the short period of "ownership" means day traders do not truly own what they trade, and furthermore pay interest. Among the sources calling it un-Islamic include Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, and Focus Business Services of the UAE. Options, futures and "other derivatives" are "generally" not used in Islamic finance "because of the prohibition against maisir". Sources stating that most derivative or some kinds of derivative are banned by Islamic scholars include Juan Sole and Andreas Jobst, P. S. Mills and J. R. Presley, Taqi Usmani, and Investopedia. The most commonly used Both Islamic finance practitioners and critics find benefit in at least some uses of derivatives and short selling – managing risk in times of financial trouble and improving market efficiency and employee productivity.

At least some in the Islamic finance industry use derivatives and make short sales, and the permissibility of this is a subject of "heated debate".

Global standards for trading Islamic profit-rate and currency swap derivatives were set in 2010 with the "Hedging Master Agreement" (see below).

A "Shariah-certified" short-sale had been created by some Shariah-compliant hedge funds. However, both have been criticized as un-Islamic. "reality", asserting the presence Islam in international financial markets (according to Taqi Usmani);

  • drawing conventional banks into the industry in search of Muslim customers (Munawar Iqbal and Philip Molyneux);
  • drawing new customers and money into banking, rather than taking existing customers and their money away from conventional banking, (Laurent Gheeraert);
  • creating a less risky form of finance (according to Zeti Akhtar Aziz and others):
  • by forbidding speculation, so that, for example, the excesses that led to the 2008 financial crisis are avoided (according to Ibrahim Warde);
  • and by use of two kinds of accounts:
  • "current accounts" – where funds earn no return and (in theory) are held, not invested by the bank, so not subject to risk;
  • and mudarabah accounts – where the depositors share in any losses with the bank, so diminishing the bank's risk.
  • While the industry has problems and challenges, these can be explained by
  • its relative youth and low position on the "learning curve" that will solve these difficulties over time; and by
  • non-Islamic influences which can only be eliminated when the industry operates in a truly Islamic society and environment.

Industry framework

Islamic financial institutions take different forms. They may be:

  1. Full-fledged Islamic financial institutions (for example Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Meezan Bank in Pakistan);
  2. Islamic "windows" – i.e. separate, sharia-compliant units – in conventional financial institutions (for example: HSBC – HSBC Amanah, American Express Bank, ANZ Grindlays, BNP-Paribas, Chase Manhattan, UBS, Kleinwort Benson, Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, Ahli United Bank Kuwait, Riyad Bank); (Scholars debate the Sharia compliance of this form, according to Faleel Jamaldeen, "primarily" because of "where" the funds for these windows come from.);
  3. Islamic subsidiaries of conventional financial institutions (for example: Citibank subsidiary Citi Islamic Investment Bank (Bahrain), Union Bank of Switzerland subsidiary Noriba Bank); or
  4. in India, Islamic non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs).

Size and locations

{| class="wikitable floatright"

|+ id="market-share-table-caption" | Percentage of world market share of Islamic banking industry by country, 2014

|-

! scope="row" | Saudi Arabia

| 33

|-

! scope="row" | Malaysia

| 15.5

|-

! scope="row" | UAE

| 15.4

|-

! scope="row" | Kuwait

| 10.1

|-

! scope="row" | Qatar

| 8.1

|-

! scope="row" | Turkey

| 5.1

|-

! scope="row" | Indonesia

| 2.5

|-

! scope="row" | Bahrain

| 1.6

|-

! scope="row" | Pakistan

| 1.4

|-

! scope="row" | Rest of the world

| 7.3

|}

Sharia-compliant banking grew at an annual rate of 17.6% between 2009 and 2013, faster than conventional banking, still much smaller than the conventional sector.

As of 2010, Islamic financial institutions operate in 105 countries. Statistics differ on which country has the largest Islamic banking sector. According to the 2016 World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report (see table), Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Turkey represented over 87% of international Islamic banking assets. A 2006 report by ISI Analytics also lists Saudi Arabia at the top and Iran as insignificant. In Qatar, Islamic banking assets were valued at $97 billion at the end of 2017, accounting for nearly 81% of total Islamic finance assets, according to QFC Authority chief executive officer Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida. The country also announced the launch of an energy-focused Islamic bank with $10 billion capital in 2019, which would make it the biggest Islamic lender for energy projects in the world.

However, according to Ibrahim Warde, Shia-majority Iran dominates Islamic banking with $345 billion in Islamic assets, Saudi Arabia with $258 billion, Malaysia $142 billion, Kuwait with $118 billion and UAE with $112 billion. Islamic banks in the UAE also provide Islamic investment programs which are Shariah compliant. And according to Reuters, Iranian banks accounted for "over a third" of the estimated worldwide total of Islamic banking assets, (although sanctions have hurt Iran's banking industry and "its Islamic financial system has evolved in ways that will complicate ties with foreign banks"). According to the latest central bank data, Iran's banking assets as of March 2014 totalled 17,344 trillion riyals or $523 billion at the free market exchange rate.

According to The Banker, as of November 2015, three out of ten top Islamic banks in the world based on return on assets were Iranian.

Sharia advisory councils and consultants

thumb|right|An Islamic bank branch in the UMNO building in [[Kota Kinabalu]]

Because compliance with Shariah law is the raison d'être of Islamic finance, Islamic banks and banking institutions that offer Islamic banking products and services may establish a Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) – to advise them on whether some proposed transaction or product follows the Sharia, and to ensure that the operations and activities of the banking institution comply with Shariah principles.

According to various Islamic banking organizations some requirements for SSBs include:

  • that they be composed of jurists specializing in fiqh al-muamalat, i.e. Islamic commercial jurisprudence, (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, AAOIFI);
  • their fatwas (legal opinions) and ruling be binding, (AAOIFI);

In addition, their duties should include:

  • calculating zakat payable by Islamic financial institutions, (AAOIFI);
  • disposing of non-Shariah-compliant income, (AAOIFI);
  • advising on the distribution of income among investors and shareholders, (AAOIFI).

Since the beginning of modern Islamic finance, the work of the Shariah boards has become more standardized.

Among the organizations that have issued guidelines and standards for Shariah compliance are the AAOIFI, Fiqh Academy of the OIC, Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) (2009). The guidelines and standards are not regulations though, and each Islamic financial institution has its own SSB, which are not generally obliged to follow them.

However, their home country many have a regulatory organization that they are required to follow.

As of 2013, regulators in Bahrain, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia and Pakistan have developed guidelines for SSBs in their respective jurisdictions. Some countries, like Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sudan, and the UAE have centralized SSBs. A number of Shariah advisory firms have now emerged to offer Shariah advisory services to institutions offering Islamic financial services.

Financial accounting standards

The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has been publishing standards and norms for Islamic financial institutions since 1993. By 2010, it had issued "25 accounting standards, seven auditing standards, six governance standards, 41 shari'ah standards and two codes of ethics." (By 2017 it had issued 94 standards in the "areas of Shari’ah, accounting, auditing, ethics and governance".) Although it is an independent body, its "pronouncements on the acceptability or otherwise of contractual structures in relation to Islamic financial instruments are to be viewed in the same vein as regulatory edicts." Its standards are mandatory for Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and recommended for other Muslim countries and Islamic financial institutions according to Muhammad Akram Khan.

Established in Algiers in 1990, its original name was the Financial Accounting Organization for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions. It later moved its headquarters to Bahrain.

The International Islamic Financial Market – a standardization body of the Islamic Financial Services Board for Islamic capital market products and operations – was founded in November 2001 through the cooperation of the governments and central banks of Brunei, Indonesia and Sudan. Its secretariat is located in Manama, Bahrain. It is not a regulatory body and its recommendations are "not implemented by most Islamic banks". Faleel Jamaldeen differentiates its controlling body (Islamic Financial Services Board) from the other Islamic Financial standards organ, the AAOIFI, saying,<blockquote>the AAOIFI sets best practices for handling the financial reporting requirements of Islamic financial institutions, IFSB standards are mainly concerned with the identification, management, and disclosure of risk related to Islamic financial products.</blockquote>

Individual countries also have accounting standards. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan issues Islamic Financial Accounting Standards (IFAS).

Supporting institutions

thumb|[[A F M Khalid Hossain unveiling the plaque for the 'Institute of Islamic Banking, Finance and Economics' at United International University, 2025. ]]

The Islamic Interbank Money Market was established by Bank Negara Malaysia on 3 January 1994, and has developed instruments to manage the liquidity needs of the Islamic financial institutions – "funding and adjusting portfolios over the short term".

The Islamic Financial Services Board was founded on 3 November 2002 in Kuala Lumpur by the central banks of Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan along with the Islamic Development Bank, AAOIFI, and IMF.

As of April 2015, the 188 members of the IFSB comprise 61 regulatory and supervisory authorities, eight international inter-governmental organisations, and 119 market players (financial institutions, professional firms and industry associations) operating in 45 jurisdictions. From 2002 to 2012 it issued 17 standards, guiding principles and notes.

Its objective is to standardize and harmonize the operation and supervision, standards and capital adequacy, risk management and corporate governance of Islamic financial institutions in consultation with a wide array of stakeholders and after following a lengthy process. It complements the task of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. As of 2015 it had published 17 standards and six guidance notes.

The Islamic International Ratings Agency started operations in July 2005 in Bahrain. It is sponsored by 17 multilateral development institutions, banks and other rating agencies.

The Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI) was established in 1996. The Index has been approved by Fiqh Academy of the OIC. It uses three levels of screening—eliminating businesses involved in activities not allowed by Islamic law (alcohol, pork, gambling, prostitution, pornography, etc.); eliminating companies whose total debts divided by their 12-month average market capitalization are 33% or more of their total sources of funds; eliminating companies that have 'impure income or expenditure' (including, of course, interest) of more than 5–10 per cent of their income or expenditure (eliminating businesses with any 'impure income' being considered impractical).

In 2006, Citigroup launched the Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index. The sukuk making up the Index must be at least $250 million in size, have a maturity of at least one year and a minimum rating of BBB-/Baaa3. In 1998, the FTSE Global Islamic Index was launched. It has 15 Islamic indices for various regions.

In 2007, the MSCI Islamic Index series was launched, one of the "MSCI 'Faith-Based' Indexes". It is constructed from the conventional MSCI country indices and covers 69 developed, emerging and frontier markets, including regions such as the Gulf Cooperation Council and Arabian markets.

Central banking

Although no Muslim country has yet banned interest on loans completely, suggestions have been made as to how to deal with monetary policy when central banks operate in an interest-free environment and there are no longer any interest rates to lower or raise. Economist Mohammad N. Siddiqi has proposed that central banks offer "refinance facilities" to expand or contract credit as needed to deal with inflation or deflation.

He also proposes that short term credit for the production sector of the economy be estimated by the central banks and then adjusted by manipulating the "refinance ratio" and the "lending ratio".

According to economist and Islamic finance critic Feisal Khan, a "true" or strict Islamic banking and finance system of profit and loss sharing (the type supported by Taqi Usmani and the Shariah Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan) would severely cripple central banks' ability to fight a credit crunch or liquidity crisis that leads to a severe recession (such as happened in 2007–8). This is because if credit was provided by taking "a direct equity stake in every enterprise" (the PLS approach) it would contract in a credit crunch. But situations like this – when financiers are "less and less sure of the creditworthiness of their financial sector counterparties" and essentially stop lending to even the biggest and most stable borrowers or even other banks – is exactly the time when credit expansion and "flooding" the economy with liquidity is needed to prevent widespread business bankruptcy and unemployment.

Products, services and contracts

Banking makes up most of the Islamic finance industry. Banking products are often classified in one of three broad categories, two of which are "investment accounts":

  • Profit and loss sharing modes (musharakah and mudarabah), where the financier and the customer share profits and losses, are based on "contracts of partnership". These have been called the "real and ideal" modes of Islamic finance and other theoreticians of Islamic finance).
  • "Asset-backed financing" and involve the "purchase and hire of goods or assets and services on a fixed-return basis". Originally these modes were intended by Islamic banking advocates to be "interim" measures, or to be used for situations where participatory financing was not practical, but now account for the great bulk of investments in many Islamic banks.
  • Modes based on contracts of safety and security include safe-keeping contracts (wadi’ah) for current deposits (the equivalent of a checking account in the US), and agency contracts (wakalah).

Most Islamic finance is in banking, but non-banking finance, such as sukuk, equity markets, investment funds, insurance (takaful), and microfinance, with many products named after a particular type of contract (e.g. mudaraba) although they are combinations of more than one contract.

Profit and loss sharing

While the original Islamic banking proponents hoped profit-loss sharing (PLS) would be the primary mode of finance replacing interest-based loans, – and has "declined to almost negligible proportions". Loans are permitted in Islam if the interest that is paid is linked to the profit or loss obtained by the investment. The concept of profit acts as a symbol in Islam as equal sharing of profits, losses, and risks.

Mudarabah

A mudarabah or mudharabah contract is a profit sharing partnership in a commercial enterprise. One partner, the rabb-ul-mal, is a silent or sleeping partner who provides money. The other partner, the mudarib, provides expertise and management. The arrangement is similar to venture capital in conventional finance, in which a venture capitalist finances an entrepreneur, who provides management and labor.

Profits are shared between the parties according to a pre-agreed ratio, usually either 50%–50%, or 60% for the mudarib and 40% for the rabb-ul-mal. If there is a loss, the rabb-ul-mal loses the invested capital, and the mudarib loses the invested time and effort. The sharing of risk reflects the view of Islamic banking proponents that under Islam, the user of capital – labor and management – should not bear all the risk of failure. Sharing of risk, according to proponents, results in a balanced distribution of income, and prevents financiers from dominating the economy.

Musharakah (joint venture)

Like mudaraba, musharakah is also a profit and loss sharing partnership, but one where investment comes from all the partners, all partners are given the option of participating in the management of the business, and all partners share in losses according to the ratio (pro rata) of their investment.

Musharakah may be "permanent" or "diminishing". It is often used in investment projects, letters of credit, and the purchase of real estate or property. Use of musharaka is not great. In Malaysia, for example, the share of musharaka (or at least permanent musharaka) financing declined from 1.4 percent in 2000 to 0.2 per cent in 2006.

Diminishing musharaka

Musharaka al-Mutanaqisa (literally "diminishing partnership") is a popular type of financing for major purchases such as housing. In it, the bank and purchaser (customer) have joint ownership of a purchased asset with the customer also leasing the asset. As the customer gradually pays off the cost the bank's equity share diminishes from all but the customer percentage of the down payment to nothing.

If the customer defaults and the asset is sold, the bank and the customer split the proceeds according to each party's current equity.

To highlight how Musharaka al-Mutanaqisa is different from conventional banking mortgages in terms of law and practice is understood, compare it to a typical United States mortgage:

When a buyer wishes to purchase a home, she approaches the lender and requests a loan. The lender in turn, if the buyer qualifies, will lend money to buy the house, and the bank will usually set a fixed percentage of interest to be paid to the lender. Each payment to the lender will then include a return of a portion of the principal and the interest accrued on the remaining balance for that period. Over time, the entire principal is paid back to the lender, together with all the interest that is due. In terms of the ownership of the house, the buyer/borrower/debtor will have legal title to the house during the term of repayment and thereafter too. In the county title records office, the borrower will have a title deed showing the buyer as the title holder, and not the bank. The risk of the house diminishing in value is assumed by the borrower and not the bank. On the other hand, any appreciation is also assumed by the borrower and the bank cannot ask for more principal due to appreciation. Hence, the bank and the borrower know at the outset their exact obligations to each other. The bank, in an effort to secure its loan, will place a lien (a charge) on the property, so that if the borrower does not repay the loan, the bank gets the right to foreclose on the borrower's right to hold title and have the title be transferred to the bank (or the house be auctioned and the proceeds received by the bank). In the U.S., most states have a judicial foreclosure process where the bank asks the court to sell the property to recover the balance of its loan and accrued interest, plus any other costs of the suit.

The Musharaka al-Mutanaqisa differs from the US mortgage in how it addresses the interest portion of the payment from the borrower to the bank. The concept of title is critical, because the Islamic bank will still come up with the money to buy the house, but the bank will buy the house in partnership with the homeowner. Together the bank and the borrower will become "tenants in common" and the local records office will show both the bank and the buyer as joint owners. The percentage of ownership of the house at this point will be based on the contributed money ratio between the bank and buyer. Assuming the buyer paid 10% of the price and the bank paid 90% of the price, since the bank will not be living in the house, the buyer will agree to a rental payment for the use of the 90% of the property that they do not own outright. In addition, the buyer will also agree to buy a certain percent of the bank's portion on a monthly basis. Hence, the buyer pays rent for usage of house, and also to buy out the bank's portion of ownership. Since there is no interest being paid, this form of ownership (in partnership) is acceptable under Shariah. At the end of the agreed rental term, the buyer will have bought out the entire partnership, and the buyer can then ask the bank to dissolve the partnership. The recorder's office will have a new title deed recorded, whereby the bank ceases to be a tenant-in-common with the buyer, and the buyer becomes the entire title holder (whether alone or with their spouse, or any other entity as chosen by the buyer).

The essence of both transactions is different, based which entity legally has title to the house at the outset. The other difference is that the monthly payments by the buyer in Islamic banking are considered to be rent and partnership buyout payments, and not the return of principal and interest as they are in conventional banking. The Islamic bank also shares in the risk of a depreciation in the value of the house, where in the conventional banking model the bank does not take on this risk. The opposite is true also, where both the Islamic bank and the buyer gain if the house is sold for more than the book value of the partnership. In conventional banking, the bank does not benefit from rising prices.

Skeptics of Islamic banking argue that the result is the same: the buyer makes monthly payments to own the house, much like a conventional mortgage. However, as the risk of the price of the house decreasing is shared between buyer and bank in Islamic banking, it is legally distinct from the conventional mortgage transaction.

Asset-backed financing

thumb|right|The Faisal Islamic Bank in [[Khartoum.]]

Asset-backed or debt-type instruments (also called contracts of exchange) are sales contracts that allow for the exchange of one commodity for another commodity, the exchange of a commodity for money, or the exchange of money for money.

Murâbaḥah

Murabahah (or murabaha) is an Islamic contract for a sale where the buyer and seller agree on the markup (profit) or "cost-plus" price for the item(s) being sold.

Murabahah has also come to be the most common type of Islamic finance. One estimate is that 80% of Islamic lending is by murabahah. This is despite the fact that (according to Uthmani) Islamic finance Shari‘ah supervisory boards "are unanimous" in agreement that murabahah loans "are not ideal modes of financing", and should be used only "when more preferable means of finance – musharakah, mudarabah, salam or istisna – are not workable for some reasons".|group=Note

Economists have questioned whether murabahah is actually distinct from debt- and interest-based finance. The fact that there is a principal and a payment plan means that there is an implied interest rate, In contrast to LIBOR, Islamic banks lend money based on their own reference rate, known as the Islamic Interbank Benchmark Rate, which "uses expected profits from short-term money and a forecasted return on the assets of the bank receiving funds".

Bai' muajjal

In Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), bai' muajjal, also called bai'-bithaman ajil, or BBA, is a credit sale or deferred payment sale, i.e. the sale of goods on a deferred payment basis. In Islamic finance, the bai' muajjal product also involves the price markup of a murabahah contract, and a murabahah product involves a bai-muajjal deferred payment. Thus the terms and are often used interchangeably, (according to Hans Visser), or "in practice ... used together" (according to Faleel Jamaldeen).

However, according to another source, bai' muajjal differs from murabahah in that the client, not the bank, is in possession of and bear the risk for the goods being purchased before completion of payment. And according to a Malaysian source, the main difference between BBA (short for bai'-bithaman ajil) and murabaha – at least as practiced in Malaysia – is that murabaha is used for medium and short term financing and BBA for longer term.

Bai' muajjal as a finance product was introduced in 1983 by Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad.

Bai' al 'inah (sale and buy-back agreement)

Bai' al 'inah (literally, "double sale" or "a loan in the form of a sale"),

is a financing arrangement where the financier/bank buys some asset from the customer on a spot basis, with the financier's payment constituting the "loan". The asset is then sold back to the customer, who pays in installments over time, essentially "repaying the loan". Since the loaning of cash for profit is forbidden in Islamic finance, some scholars do not believe bai' al 'inah is permissible in Islam. According to the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance, it "serves as a ruse for lending on interest", but bai' al 'inah is practiced in Malaysia and similar jurisdictions.

Musawamah

A musawamah (literally "bargaining") contract is used if the exact cost of the item(s) sold to the bank/financier either cannot be or is not ascertained.

Istisna and bai salam

Istisna (also bia istisna or bai' al-istisna) and bai salam (also bai us salam or just salam) are "forward contracts" – customized contracts where immediate payment is made for goods in the future (i.e. goods not yet manufactured, built, or harvested). while salam "can be effected on anything" except gold, silver, or currencies based on these metals.

On the other hand, a salam contract cannot be cancelled unilaterally, and the time of delivery must be specified When the product/structure is finished and sold, the bank can be repaid.

Bai salam and istisna contracts should be as detailed as possible to avoid uncertainty.

Salam contracts predate istisna and were designed to fulfill the needs of small farmers and traders. Salam is a preferred financing structure and carries a higher order of Shariah compliance than murabahah or musawamah contracts.

Istisna are used in the Islamic finance world by the Kuwait Finance House Examples of banks using salam are ADCB Islamic Banking and Dubai Islamic Bank.

is a leasing or renting contract. In traditional Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), it means a contract for the hiring of persons, services, or the "usufruct" of a property, generally for a fixed period and price.

In Islamic finance, al ijarah usually refers to a leasing contract that also includes a sales contract. Some property, such as a manufacturing plant, office automation, or motor vehicle, is leased to a client for a stream of rental and purchase payments, so that the end of the leasing period coincides with the completion of purchase payments and transfer of ownership to the lessee. and ijarah wa-iqtina ("lease and ownership") involve the leasing/renting/hiring of a good, paid in installments and ending with its purchase (or option to purchase) by/for the customer.

The two modes differ in that in ijarah wa-iqtina (or ijara muntahia bittamleek) sale/ownership transfer is "an option given to the lessee" and cannot be a precondition.

Ijara mawsoofa bi al dhimma

In a "forward ijarah" or ijara mawsoofa bi al dhimma, the service or benefit being leased is defined, rather than the particular unit providing that service/benefit.

In contemporary Islamic finance, it is used to finance construction (of a home, office, factory, etc.) combined with a istisna contract.

Ijarah challenges

Among the complaints made against ijara are that in practice some rules protecting the customer are overlooked, that its rules provide weaker legal standing and consumer protection and less flexibility than a conventional mortgage loan or car finance contract, as well as higher costs.

Tawarruq

A tawarruq (literally "turns into silver", or "monetization") and both contemporary and classical Islamic scholars have forbidden the practice. Nonetheless, as of 2012 Islamic banks using tawarruq include the United Arab Bank, QNB Al Islamic, Standard Chartered of the United Arab Emirates, and Bank Muamalat Malaysia.

Charitable lending

Qardh-ul hasan

Taqi Usmani insists that the "role of loans" (as opposed to investment or finance) in a truly Islamic society is "very limited", and that Shariah law permits loans not as an ordinary occurrence, "but only in cases of dire need".

Such loans are often made by social service agencies, or by a firm as a benefit to its employees, rather than by Islamic banks. They are analogous to the microcredit of conventional finance, when it does not provide for interest.

Quoting the Islamic prophet Muhammad, some sources insist that lenders may not gain "any advantage or benefits" from the loan, let alone interest.

However, some Islamic banks offer products called qardh-ul hasan which charge lenders a management fee,

and others have savings account products called qardh-ul hasan, (the "loan" being a deposit to a bank account) where the debtor (the bank) may pay an extra amount beyond the principal amount of the loan (known as a hibah, literally gift) if the extra is not an obligation of the account/loan agreement. and predates conventional banking remittance systems by many centuries.

In the first half of the 20th century it lost ground to instruments of the conventional banking system, but regained it starting in the late 20th century with the economic migration of Muslim workers to wealthier countries in the West and the Gulf and their need to send money home. Dubai has traditionally served as a hub for hawala.

Hawala is based on a short term, discountable, negotiable, promissory note (or bill of exchange) called "hundi", Hawaladars are often small traders who work at hawala as a sideline or moonlighting operation. is called "surety" or "guaranty" in conventional finance. A third party accepts an existing obligation and becomes responsible for fulfilling someone's liability. A rahn contract is made in order to secure a financial liability.

Wakalah

In a wakalah contract, a person (the principal or muwakkel) appoints a representative (the agent or wakil) to undertake transactions on his/her behalf which the principal does not have the time, knowledge or expertise to perform themselves – similar to a power of attorney agreement in conventional legal terms. Wakalah should be a non-binding contract for a fixed fee. The agent's services may include selling and buying, lending and borrowing, debt assignment, guarantee, gifting, litigation and making payments, and wakil are involved in numerous Islamic products like musharakah, mudarabah, murabaha, salam and ijarah.

An example of wakalah is found in a mudarabah profit and loss sharing contract where the mudarib (the party that receives the capital and manages the enterprise) serves as a wakil for the rabb-ul-mal (the silent party that provides the capital).

Deposits in Islamic banking

From the point of view of depositors, the "investment accounts" of Islamic banks – based on profit and loss sharing and asset-backed finance – play a similar role to the "time deposits" of conventional banks. (For example, one Islamic bank – Al Rayan Bank in the United Kingdom – offers "fixed term" deposits or savings accounts). In both, the depositor agrees to hold the deposit at the bank for a fixed amount of time. In Islamic banking return is measured as "expected profit rate" rather than interest.

"Demand deposits" of Islamic financial institutions, which provide no return, are structured with qard al-hasana (also known as qard) contracts, or less commonly as wadiah or amanah contracts, according to Mohammad O. Farooq.

Restricted and unrestricted investment accounts

At least in one Muslim country with a strong Islamic banking sector (Malaysia), there are two main types of investment accounts offered by Islamic banks for those investing specifically in profit and loss sharing modes leaving the bank or investing institution full authority to invest funds as "it deems fit", unrestricted by purpose, geography, or means of investing. In exchange the accounts may be "tailored to meet a diverse range of customer needs and preferences", but are not guaranteed against losses. and have sometimes hidden poor performance from investors.

Demand deposits

Islamic banks also offer "demand deposits", i.e. accounts which promise the convenience of returning funds to depositors on demand, but in return usually pay little if any return on investment and/or charge more fees. is known as an urbun (lit. "down payment"); the equivalent of a put option is known as a "reverse urbun". In each the seller has the right but not the obligation to either buy (in the case of a call or urbun) or sell (in the case of a put or "reverse urbun") at a pre-determined price by some point in the future. These two Islamic options also have a different name for a "premium", (called a "down payment") and for the "strike price" ("preset price"). The options' Islamic distinctiveness has been questioned by analysts, and its use has been criticized by conservative scholars.|group=Note many of them small entrepreneurs in need of capital, and most unwilling or unable to use formal financial services.

According to the Islamic Microfinance Network website (as of ), there are more than 300 Islamic microfinance institutions in 32 countries. The products used in Islamic microfinance may include some of those mentioned above – qard al hassan, musharaka, mudaraba, salam, and others.

A number of studies

One 2012 report found that Islamic microfinance made up less than 1 percent of the global microfinance outreach, "despite the fact that almost half of the clients of microfinance live in Muslim countries and the demand for Islamic microfinance is very strong."

Monetary system integration

Integration of Islamic banking principles with modern monetary systems presents opportunities and challenges for comprehensive financial reform. By 2012, Sharia-compliant assets had grown to over $1.8 trillion, raising the importance of how institutions interact with conventional monetary frameworks.

Central banking and Islamic finance interface

Dual banking systems

Most countries with significant Islamic banking sectors operate dual banking systems where central banks supervise both Islamic and conventional banks. Malaysia pioneered this system, which requires central banks to develop specialized regulatory frameworks accommodating interest-based as well as profit-sharing models.

The Bank Negara Malaysia has established a board, setting international standards for separate Islamic banking subsidiaries with distinct capital requirements, liquidity management tools, and supervisory frameworks. Under this system, central banks maintain parallel monetary policy instruments: conventional tools based on interest rate, and Islamic alternatives based on profit-sharing ratios.

Monetary policy transmission mechanisms

Traditional monetary policy operates by central banks altering benchmark rates, affecting variable retail rates. Islamic banking's prohibition on interest challenges this transmission mechanism.

Alternative transmission channels in Islamic banking include:

  • The asset price channel works through exchange rates and equity prices.
  • The credit channel impacts bank lending and corporate balance sheets.
  • The profit- and loss-sharing channel works through reference rate increases raising interbank and lending rates, which restrict borrowing.

In Islamic economics frameworks, zakat helps avoid the zero lower bound liquidity trap.

100% reserve banking models

Some Islamic economists advocate for full reserve banking as more consistent with Islamic principles.

Under this system:

  • Demand deposits would be backed by 100% reserves, functioning as safekeeping services (wadi'ah) rather than loans to banks.
  • Investment accounts would have depositors accept risk of loss in exchange for potential profits.
  • Money creation would be limited to central bank issuance, potentially backed by gold.

Asset-backed money creation

Islamic banking's asset-backed financing offers an equilibrium between conventional fractional reserve banking and full reserve systems.

Under this approach:

  • Credit creation is backed by real assets.
  • Speculative lending is restricted by requirements for underlying commodities or services.
  • Money supply growth becomes closer tied to real production than monetary policy decisions.

Research suggests this approach shows greater resilience, though trade-offs between self-insurance against liquidity risks and opportunity costs remain.

Compliance with Islamic goals and Sharia

thumb|[[Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam in Brunei.]]

These are the emic (from within) issues discussed within the Islamic community for the compliance of Islamic banking and finance with Sharia and desired Islamic objectives.

Challenges, criticism – industry view

Key among the challenges faced by Islamic banking, as of 2016 (according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report, 2015/16 and the IMF), are:

  • "low levels" of public awareness;
  • "underdeveloped" safety nets and resolution frameworks such as Sharia compliant deposit insurance systems and "lenders-of-last-resort";

Another challenge in Islamic banking has been the exploitation of poor or vulnerable people in the name of religion.

Challenges, criticism – scholars and critics

Critics have complained that Islamic banking and finance closely resembles the conventional sort but has "higher costs, bigger risks", – a situation that has not been remedied by "learning" over the decades.

Other issues/complaints include a lack of policies to uplift small traders and the poor; and that the banking practices approved by this small number of Islamic jurists have moved closer and closer to the practices of conventional non-Islamic banking.

"Fatwa shopping", independence

Journalist John Foster quotes an "investment banker based in Dubai":

<blockquote>"We create the same type of products that we do for the conventional markets. We then phone up a Sharia scholar for a Fatwa ... If he doesn't give it to us, we phone up another scholar, offer him a sum of money for his services and ask him for a Fatwa. We do this until we get Sharia compliance. Then we are free to distribute the product as Islamic." creating potential conflicts of interest.

This scarcity also increases fees. Two researchers noted the small group of Shariah experts "earn as much as US$88,5000 per year per bank" and can "charge up to US$500,000 for advice on large capital market transactions."

Income far in excess of what has been customary for Islamic scholars, as well as being eagerly asked for a legal opinion by wealthy, high-status people, may lead to what one writer (Muhammad O. Farooq) calls a "certain changes in viewpoint" resulting in "over-stretching the rules of Shariah".

A study of the practice of boards of financial institutions setting the pay and employment of SSB members found this arrangement "compromise(s) the independence of the SSB".

Another study found Islamic financial institutions do "not have practices which ensure transparency in the role and functions of the SSBs".

Imitation of conventional finance

A number of scholarly supporters (such as Taqi Usmani, D.M. Qureshi, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Harris Irfan) and skeptics of Islamic banking (Muhammad Akram Khan, Muhammad O. Farooq, Feisal Khan, Mahmoud El-Gama, Timur Kuran) have complained of Islamic finance's similarity to conventional banking.

Taqi Usmani argues that the industry has "totally" neglected its "basic philosophy", undermining its own raison d'être; so that non-Muslims and the Muslim "masses" have now gotten the impression that Islamic banking is "nothing but a matter of twisting documents..." (Another violation is the use of ijarah (leasing) without the "lessor either assuming "the liability for his ownership" or offering "any usufruct to the lessee".)

Others (Hassan Heikal) have also criticized the authenticity of sukuk. Critics of Islamic banking have called it "a labeling industry" (D.M. Qureshi),