Al Rayan Bank

Al Rayan Bank, formerly Islamic Bank of Britain, is the UK’s only wholly Sharia-compliant retail bank. Its approach is built on the idea of the bank and the customers sharing both risk and reward.

Instead of offering interest rates on its accounts, Al Rayan Bank gives expected profit returns. Since it began, the bank has always achieved the expected profit rate offered to its customers, sometimes even exceeding it. With fees set at fair levels, customers are only charged on the bank’s actual costs for the account — with any additional balance remaining donated to the bank’s approved charities.

This reliability hinges on its investment approach. The bank is prohibited from investing savers’ deposits in unethical activities such as alcohol, tobacco, arms, pornography and gambling. The main investment assets are therefore residential and commercial property, as well as low-risk commodities such as metals — although the bank would not confirm or deny whether they invest in fossil fuels for our Divest campaign. Al Rayan Bank also avoids speculation and risk-based financial instruments employed by conventional banks, such as derivatives, preferring finance based on physical assets. All of this adds up to low risk, great reliability, and excellent returns — at the same time as avoiding most ethical grey areas that blight the dominant high-street banks.

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Originally published at moveyourmoney.org.uk on October 16, 2014.