Islamic Finance

The book I read to research this post was Islamic Finance For Dummies by Dr Faleel Jamaldeen  which is a very good book which I read at

http://safaribooksonline.com

Islamic finance started to catch on in the 60's & 70's & was a sector of the banking industry that was quite resilient to the banking crisis partly because they couldn't sell the debts from mortgages onto someone else. Basically they aren't allowed to charge interest on borrowings or give interest on deposits. They can charge a fee on borrowings and can pay a proportion of profits on deposits however. Also the money deposited by muslims can't be invested in things connected to anything like pork production, gambling, pornography, weapons, booze, cloning tobacco or illegal drugs. Cloning is a new regulation. Also islamic banks are subject to sharia regulations and other islamic regulations like accounting. London leads the way in Europe with the Islamic Bank Of England although the Luxembourg Stock Exchange was first to use Islamic Finance. Equally with insurance they can't pay an interest dividend or no claims bonus and instead bus proportion of profits for not claiming. The islamic population is growing very rapidly especially in Asia & Africa & this is very much seen as a growth industry. The author of this book works at a university and is a specialist in Islamic Finance. I did enjoy reading this book and found it very interesting. Many banks like Lloyds TSB & HSBC are also getting involved in it.