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 banking/finance include Mudarabah, Wadiah (safekeeping), Musharaka, Murabahah (cost-plus), and Ijara (leasing).
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.
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. 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. Its branch network consists of 343 branches and sub-branches spread over 125 cities in Pakistan. 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 with 317 branches in 93 cities nationwide. The idea of BankIslami was conceptualized by Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited and Randeree family in late 2003. Mr. Hasan A. Bilgram I. was appointed as adviser to the sponsors on 16th 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.
The Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is an Islamic bank in Dubai, established in 1975 by Saeed Bin Ahmed Lootah. It is the first Islamic bank in the world to have incorporated the principles of Islam in all its practices and is the largest Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates.
The Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIM), launched in 1999 in Bahrain, was the first index created for investors seeking investments in compliance with Muslim Sharia law.
RHB Bank Berhad is a Malaysian bank based in Kuala Lumpur and founded in 1994. It is one of the largest banks in Malaysia.
Lembaga Tabung Haji (Jawi: تابوڠ حاج ; Arabic صندوق الحج) also known as Tabung Haji or TH is the Malaysian hajj pilgrims fund board. It was formerly known as Lembaga Urusan dan Tabung Haji (LUTH). The main headquarters is located at Tabung Haji Tower, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. Tabung Haji facilitates savings for the pilgrimage to Mecca through investment in Shariah-compliant vehicles. Through its subsidiaries, the company also engaged in other industries such as finance, hospitality, property, plantation and information technology.
CIMB Group Holdings Berhad is a Malaysian universal bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and operating in high growth economies in ASEAN. CIMB Group is an indigenous ASEAN investment bank. CIMB has a wide retail branch network with 1,080 branches across the region.
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.
Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) is the UAE's largest free-trade zone that is located in the Jumeirah Lake Towers district of Dubai. Created in 2002, it serves as a commodities exchange that deals in four main sectors: precious commodities ; energy; steel and metals and agricultural commodities .
In August 2020, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, a sovereign wealth fund, became the parent company of the autonomous DMCC as part of a major restructuring.
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.
Banking or banking activity that complies with Sharia —known as Islamic banking and finance, or Sharia-compliant finance—has its own products, services and contracts that differ from conventional banking. Some of these include Mudharabah, Wadiah (safekeeping), Musharakah, Murabahah, Ijar (leasing), Hawala, Takaful, and Sukuk.
The Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ARABCCI) or (ArabCham) in Hong Kong was established in 2006 to promote commercial ties between Hong Kong and Greater China with the Arab world. The Arab Chamber of Commerce is a not for profit organisation, The President is Edwin Hitti.
Gatehouse Bank PLC (بوابة البيت) is a UK regulated bank headquartered in London, with additional offices in Milton Keynes and Wilmslow.
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.
UIF Corporation (UIF) is an American financial service company headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. It provides residential and commercial financing based on faith based principles for the religious minorities who for religious beliefs want to avoid paying or receiving fixed interest contracts. UIF, is the first faith based banking subsidiary run entirely on faith based principles and offers faith based commercial real-estate financing and home financing through their Partnership, Murabaha and Ijara programs.
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.
Islamic banking and finance — the industry built around avoiding interest and other financial practices found in violation of sharia — has been both praised and criticized by observers.
Wahed is an American financial technology and services company based in New York City, New York. In July 2019, the company launched the first exchange-traded fund in the United States that was compliant with Sharia law. Wahed operates in 130 countries and has offices in Washington D.C, New York, London and Dubai. According to Bloomberg, it has a valuation of $300 million.
