Islamic Banking - Why I Like It
I had an engagement with a consulting client the other day in Saudi Arabia. This was a newly launched bank, backed partly by the government. It is one of a rising number of "Islamic banks" that now proliferate across a number of geographies, not just throughout the Middle East, but in London and New York, as well. Islamic banking differs from traditional, Western banking, in a number of ways, some small and some large. The Koran specifically forbids charging interest on loans, for instance, so when a customer wants to finance a car, an Islamic bank would buy the car for the customer, then sell it to him one month at a time.