Principles
Islamic banking has the same
purpose as conventional banking:
to make money for the banking
institute by lending out capital.
But that is not the sole purpose
either. Adherence to Islamic law
and ensuring fair play is also at the
core of Islamic banking. Because
Islam forbids simply lending out
money at interest (see riba),
Islamic rules on transactions
(known as Fiqh al-Muamalat) have
been created to prevent this
perceived evil. The basic principle
of Islamic banking is based on risk-
sharing which is a component of
trade rather than risk-transfer
which is seen in conventional
banking. Islamic banking
introduces concepts such asprofit
sharing (Mudharabah), safekeeping
(Wadiah), joint venture
(Musharakah), cost plus
( Murabahah), and leasing (Ijar).
In an Islamic mortgage transaction,
instead of lending the buyer
money to purchase the item, a
bank might buy the item itself
from the seller, and re-sell it to
the buyer at a profit, while
allowing the buyer to pay the bank
in installments. However, the
bank's profit cannot be made
explicit and therefore there are no
additional penalties for late
payment. In order to protect itself
against default, the bank asks for
strict collateral. The goods or land
is registered to the name of the
buyer from the start of the
transaction. This arrangement is
called Murabahah.
Another approach is EIjara wa
EIqtina, which is similar to real
estate leasing. Islamic banks
handle loans for vehicles in a
similar way (selling the vehicle at a
higher-than-market price to the
debtor and then retaining
ownership of the vehicle until the
loan is paid).
An innovative approach applied by
some banks for home loans, called
Musharaka al-Mutanaqisa, allows
for a floating rate in the form of
rental. The bank and borrower
form a partnership entity, both
providing capital at an agreed
percentage to purchase the
property. The partnership entity
then rents out the property to the
borrower and charges rent. The
bank and the borrower will then
share the proceeds from this rent
based on the current equity share
of the partnership. At the same
time, the borrower in the
partnership entity also buys the
bank's share of the property at
agreed installments until the full
equity is transferred to the
borrower and the partnership is
ended. If default occurs, both the
bank and the borrower receive a
proportion of the proceeds from
the sale of the property based on
each party's current equity. This
method allows for floating rates
according to the current market
rate such as the BLR (base lending
rate), especially in a dual-banking
system like in Malaysia.
There are several other
approaches used in business
transactions. Islamic banks lend
their money to companies by
issuing floating rate interest loans.
The floating rate of interest is
pegged to the company's
individual rate of return. Thus the
bank's profit on the loan is equal
to a certain percentage of the
company's profits. Once the
principal amount of the loan is
repaid, the profit-sharing
arrangement is concluded. This
practice is called Musharaka.
Further, Mudaraba is venture
capital funding of an entrepreneur
who provides labor while financing
is provided by the bank so that
both profit and risk are shared.
Such participatory arrangements
between capital and labor reflect
the Islamic view that the borrower
must not bear all the risk/cost of a
failure, resulting in a balanced
distribution of income and not
allowing the lender to monopolize
the economy.
Islamic banking is restricted to
Islamically acceptable transactions,
which exclude those involving
alcohol, pork, gambling, etc. The
aim of this is to engage in only
ethical investing, and moral
purchasing. The Islamic Banking
and Finance Database provides
more information on the subject.
[31]
In theory, Islamic banking is an
example of full-reserve banking,
with banks achieving a 100%
reserve ratio.[32] However, in
practice, this is not the case, and
no examples of 100 per cent
reserve banking are known to exist
in practice.[33]
Islamic banks have grown recently
in the Muslim world but are a very
small share of the global banking
system. Micro-lending institutions
founded by Muslims, notably
Grameen Bank, use conventional
lending practices and are popular
in some Muslim nations, especially
Bangladesh, but some do not
consider them true Islamic
banking. However, Muhammad
Yunus, the founder of Grameen
Bank and microfinance banking,
and other supporters of
microfinance, argue that the lack of
collateral and lack of excessive
interest in micro-lending is
consistent with the Islamic
prohibition of usury (riba)