Guds Banker : En jämförande studie av finansiella system och religiösa uttryck hos fyra islamiska banker

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries. The examined banks are Islamic Bank of Britain, Al Salam Bank-Bahrain, Al Rajhi bank (Saudi-Arabia) and Bank Islam (Malaysia). The study shows that there are few, if any, religious symbols in the annual reports. Instead, focus lies on progress, science and modernity. All of the banks have Sharia councils that ensure that the products are Sharia compliant. The banks are no longer using the profit and loss sharing systems as their primary products, which is indicated by the theoretical framework. Instead, they have developed different ways to efficiently provide Sharia compliant financial services according to their own conditions. An important lesson to learn is to avoid seeing the Islamic banks as religious charity organizations and start looking at them as profit maximizing companies that specialize in a sharia compliant financial product