Islamic banking, Islamic finance, or Sharia-compliant finance is banking or financing activity that complies with Sharia and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic finance include mudarabah, wadiah (safekeeping), musharaka, murabahah (cost-plus), and ijarah (leasing).
Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is an Islamic bank based in Malaysia that was established in July 1983. Bank Islam was established primarily to assist the financial needs of the country's Muslim population, and extended its services to the broader population. The bank currently provides Sharia-compliant card services and mobile banking.
Sukuk is the Arabic name for financial certificates, also commonly referred to as "sharia compliant" bonds. Sukuk are defined by the AAOIFI as "securities of equal denomination representing individual ownership interests in a portfolio of eligible existing or future assets." The Fiqh academy of the OIC legitimized the use of sukuk in February 1988.
FGB was the third largest bank by assets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), until it merged with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi in December 2016 to form First Abu Dhabi Bank, creating the largest bank by assets in the UAE. Established in 1979, FGB is headquartered in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. FGB offers a wide range of financial services in the wholesale, consumer, and treasury banking sectors, including Islamic banking and bancassurance solutions for businesses and consumers via a network of branches across the UAE. Internationally, FGB has a branch in Singapore - that includes global wealth management services and a branch in Qatar, representative offices in London, India, Hong Kong, and Seoul, South Korea, and a subsidiary in Libya.
BankIslami Pakistan LTD. is a Pakistani Islamic bank based in Karachi, Pakistan. It has 400+ branches in 150 cities in Pakistan. It is the first Islamic commercial bank to receive the Islamic banking license under the Islamic banking policy of 2003 from the State Bank of Pakistan on March 31, 2005. MetaSol Ecom Business Consultant's The bank started its operations on 7 April 2006 and offers shariah-compliant retail banking, investment banking, consumer banking, and trade finance products. The bank intends to focus on wealth management as the core area of business and plans to soon launch proprietary products and integrated financial planning services. The bank has a nationwide presence. With the amalgamation of KASB on May 7, 2015, all 104 branches of KASB have become part of BankIslami’s branch network. BankIslami is now the 11th largest banking network in the country. The idea of BankIslami was conceptualized by MetaSol Ecom Business Consultant's Private Limited and Randeree family in late 2003. Mr. Nadeem was appointed as adviser to the sponsors on 16 March 2004 to formalize the idea. He presented the concept paper of BankIslami to sponsors on 24 March 2004. A detailed business plan was then prepared and a formal application was submitted to the State Bank of Pakistan on 26 May 2004. On the 26th of September 2005, Dubai Bank joined the sponsors and became one of the founding shareholders of BankIslami by investing 18.75% in the total capital.
Humayon Dar is the director general of the Cambridge Institute of Islamic Finance, a research institute specializing in the financial sectors of the countries with significant proportion of Islamic banking and finance.
Dubai Banking Group is the global shari'a compliant financial investor of Dubai Group with assets valued at over USD 10 billion. The group was established in 2007 when Dubai Islamic Investment Group, founded in 2004, and Dubai Bank, founded in 2002, consolidated their activities to form Dubai Banking Group.
Sharjah Islamic Bank, formerly known as the National Bank of Sharjah, is a publicly listed Islamic bank headquartered in the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The bank was established in 1976 and in 2004 converted into a fully Shariah compliant bank. The bank provides Sharia-compliant products and services to serve individuals, companies, institutions, and investors.
Noor Bank was established in January 2008, in Dubai - United Arab Emirates.
A Sharia Board certifies Islamic financial products as being Sharia-compliant. Because compliance with Sharia law is the underlying reason for the existence of Islamic finance, Islamic banks should establish a Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) to advise them on whether their products comply, and to ensure that their operations and activities comply with Sharia principles. There are also national Sharia boards in many Muslim majority countries that regulate Islamic financial institutions nationwide.
Islamic finance products, services and contracts are financial products and services and related contracts that conform with Sharia. Islamic banking and finance has its own products and services that differ from conventional banking. These include Mudharabah, Wadiah (safekeeping), Musharakah, Murabahah, Ijar (leasing), Hawala, Takaful, and Sukuk.
Premier Bank, formally First Community Bank (FCB), is a Shari'ah compliant commercial bank in Kenya, the largest economy in the East African Community. The bank received a formal approval from the Central Bank of Kenya in 2007, the national banking regulator in the country but commenced its official operations on 1 June 2008.
RAKBANK is the trading name of the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah PJSC, a public joint-stock company headquartered in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates. It is listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).
Al Baraka (Pakistan) Limited (ABPL) came into being as a result of the first merger in the Islamic Banking sector of Pakistan. The merger took place between the branch operations of Al Baraka Islamic Bank (AIB) Bahrain, Al Baraka Islamic Bank Pakistan (AIBP) and Emirates Global Islamic Bank (Pakistan), and thus from 1st November 2010, the operations of the merged entity began. The second merger took place in 2016 with Burj Bank Ltd. As of September 2016, the Bank has a national presence in Pakistan with a network of 191 branches in more than 97 cities across the country.
Adnan Chilwan is an Indian banking business executive, currently the Group CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank.
Profit and Loss Sharing refers to Sharia-compliant forms of equity financing such as mudarabah and musharakah. These mechanisms comply with the religious prohibition on interest on loans that most Muslims subscribe to. Mudarabah (مضاربة) refers to "trustee finance" or passive partnership contract, while Musharakah refers to equity participation contract. Other sources include sukuk and direct equity investment as types of PLS.
Dr. Shariq Nisar is an Indian finance professional, academic and activist. He received PhD in economics from Aligarh Muslim University, one of the oldest universities in India. He co-founded TASIS, a shariah advisory institution, related to finance, based in Mumbai, that screens stocks for Shariah compliance. His first major work was the launch of India's first Shariah Index in association with the Bombay Stock Exchange. Later on he worked with the National Stock Exchange to launch Shariah index for them. He is advisor to Kerala Government's Islamic Finance venture Cheraman Financial Services Ltd. He also helped Government of India owned General Insurance Corporation of India establish its Retakaful division in 2009. During 2013 and 2014, he served as a senior visiting fellow at Harvard Law School. He was invited to share his views before the Select Committee of Indian Parliament on the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill (2015). He served as a non-executive independent director at Octaware Technologies from November, 2015 to December 2018, India's first shariah compliant publicly listed company. Dr. Nisar has also authored various books in the area of Islamic Finance with International as well as Indian perspectives. He has been awarded Bharat Inclusion Research Fellowship 2020. Since 2017, he teaches a course at the University of Luxembourg.
The Islamic banking and finance movement that developed in the late 20th century as part of the revival of Islamic identity sought to create an alternative to conventional banking that complied with sharia (Islamic) law. Following sharia it banned from its practices riba (usury) – which it defined as any interest paid on all loans of money – and involvement in haram (forbidden) goods or services such as pork or alcohol. It also forbids gambling (maisir) and excessive risk.
Challenges in Islamic finance are the difficulties in providing modern finance services without violation of sharia. The industry of Islamic banking and finance has developed around avoiding riba by avoiding interest.
Banking in Sudan covers the history, development and structure of banking in the Sudan. From the inheritance of the banking system from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to the establishment of the Sudan central bank in 1959 and development of Islamic banking in the mid 1970s.
