Islamic banking

Islamic banking (Arabic: مصرفية إسلامية‎‎) is banking or banking activity that is consistent with the principles of sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. As such, a more correct term for Islamic banking is sharia-compliant finance.

Sharia prohibits acceptance of specific interest or fees for loans of money (known as riba, or usury), whether the payment is fixed or floating. Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g. pork or alcohol) is also haraam ("sinful and prohibited"). Although these prohibitions have been applied historically in varying degrees in Muslim countries/communities to prevent un-Islamic practices, only in the late 20th century were a number of Islamic banks formed to apply these principles to private or semi-private commercial institutions within the Muslim community.

As of 2014, sharia-compliant financial institutions represented approximately 1% of total world assets. By 2009, there were over 300 banks and 250 mutual funds around the world complying with Islamic principles and as of 2014 total assets of around $2 trillion were sharia-compliant. According to Ernst & Young, although Islamic banking still makes up only a fraction of the banking assets of Muslims, it has been growing faster than banking assets as a whole, growing at an annual rate of 17.6% between 2009 and 2013, and is projected to grow by an average of 19.7% a year to 2018.

While secular historians and Islamic modernists see Islamic banking as a modern phenomenon or "invented tradition", revivalists like Mohammed Naveed insist it is "as old as the religion itself with its principles primarily derived from the Quran". An early market economy and an early form of mercantilism, sometimes called Islamic capitalism, was developed between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The monetary economy of the period was based on the widely circulated currency the gold dinar, and it tied together regions that were previously economically independent.

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