Islamic Finance

Islamic Finance

This essay will provide a comparison between Islamic Finance and conventional Finance principles. In order to do this, firstly it is necessary to determine the scope and establish some of the fundemental concepts that define Islamic Finance, or "Sharia compliant banking" as it is often referred to. After this, it will be possible to discuss some of the advantages that Islamic Finance institutions have over the typical conventional banks.

As of 2014, Islamic Financial institutions represented around 1% of the total assets throughout the world, with an estimated value of around $2 trillion. There exist in the region of around 300 institutions throughout the world that adopt a financial approach dictated by the principles of Islam. This number has been growing as a result of the financial crash in 2008 where many conventional banks faced liquidity issues; investors disillusioned with the performance and practices of conventional banks increasingly sought to invest their assets with Islamic Finance institutions. However, the fact that only 1% of institutions currently adopts the Islamic Finance approach shows that conventional banking methods are still more popular with investors and institutions alike. Most of the Islamic Finance institutions are based in the Middle East, but there has been a significant increase in Islamic Finance institutions in the main financial centres of this world (London, Shanghai and New York).

The following table displays some of the similarities and differences between Islamic and conventional banking:

Islamic Banking revolves around several well-established concepts - based on Islamic canons, these cover the following: interest, sharing of risk and return on saving and investment accounts. First and foremost, Islamic banking must operate within the framework of the religion, based on Qura'n and Sunna. Hence only Halal activities are allowed. This holds ethics paramount and, consequently those activities forbidden to Muslims, i.e. gambling, liquor, hoarding and usury based lending are strictly avoided. The Bank does not, for example finance liquor manufacturing, transportation, storage or distribution companies. Scholars trained