Islamic banking sector diverse, expert says

Tue, 22 Jan 2008

Islamic banking in the UK now supports a wide range of business - "from sole-trader taxi drivers to international respected corporations", one provider says.

Junaid Bhatti, Islamic finance consultant for the Islamic Bank of Britain, said: "While the usual suspects are there -such as retail and manufacturing - we also provide banking services for media companies, business consultancies and medical services providers ."

He added that Islamic Banking offered a "much more personal experience" as institutions offering the service were "concerned with both the financial and ethical aspects" of a customer's business.

But Mr Bhatti pointed out that Islamic banking was not available for companies involved in the selling of such things as armaments, alcohol or pornographic material.

Under sharia law the charging of interest is prohibited, because of this the main principle of Islamic banking is that all forms of interest are forbidden.

In November 2007 the Financial Services Authority estimated the Islamic banking sector was worth approximately £250 billion worldwide.
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