1. Introduction

The Islamic bank has started to adopt its own identity conforming with the principles of Islamic finance in the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed fourteen centuries ago. Let us be reminded that the ‘Shari’a’ (Islamic law) does not allow riba, which is to say that receiving a fixed interest rate is not permitted. In fact, on the basis of Islamic principles the return on an investment is only justified if the capital assumes the form of a real activity, not monetary capital, and if the said return reflects a sort of assumed enterprise risk. Consequently, the Islamic bank is configured as a management or distribution entity of funds, activities and ventures.

The Islamic bank assumes the responsibility for identifying ventures in which its own money and that of its clients is invested. Therefore the depositors are not creditors of the bank for the sum deposited but are investors in that same bank. There are different natures of deposit but those which are most utilised are “investment accounts”. The remuneration of these deposits does not represent a fixed rate of interest but it comes from a share of the earnings of the bank. Therefore the depositor is exposed to the risk of seeing the devaluation of the deposit in the event that the bank suffers losses. In this manner, the bank can transfer the risk of its activities directly to the depositors. In a conventional bank, the investment account holders play the part of intermediary figures between the investor and the depositor not only in the function of raising funds but also in that of financing: The Islamic bank has as its objective the valuation of the profitability of its venture and not the credit risk assessment of the financial venture, nor an analysis of its capacity to furnish guaranteed returns, as happens in the case of conventional banks.

The Islamic banking system is considered to be one of the elements in most rapid expansion in the Middle Eastern financial services market. Compared with the financial situation just thirty years ago, with the approval of the ‘shari’a’, it now handles financial funds of around 200 billion dollars with the institutes capitalisation in excess of 7 billion dollars and an annual growth rate of 15%.

* The Author would like to thank Donna Murphy Vizzini (LLB, MA, CIPD, University of Manchester) for precious suggestions.

The Islamic Banking phenomenon is mainly concentrated in the following areas:

1. Middle-East (Bahrain, Iran. Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE);
2. South-East Asia (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Phillipines and Thailand);
3. Indian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan);
4. Africa (Egypt, Algeria, The Gambia, Sudan, South Africa);
5. Other countries with a very strong presence in the Islamic Community are Turkey and the UK.

This banking activity shows the largest concentration in the middle eastern region (more than 90%), with the greatest portion in Iran (60%); followed by Saudi Arabia (13.5%) and Kuwait (8.4%). Generally, we are in the presence of a system, of a public nature, which is on one hand completely Islamic (as in the case of those in Iran, Pakistan and Sudan), or one which shows intermediate characteristics of Islamic banks which co-exist with ordinary banks (such as those of Arab or eastern capital)[1].

Per continuare la lettura procedere con l’acquisto di Rivista di Scienze Sociali – Identità Culture Migrazioni. Completata la procedura di acquisto cliccare su torna al sito per il download