UK Report Looks at Faith Based Finance

Public Faith and Finance – Faith responses to the financial crisis is a report recently published by the University of Bristol and supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, and Public Spirit which looks at faith-based responses to the financial crisis.

Many references to Islamic finance as well as Christian finance are made throughout the report as part of faith based alternatives to market based finance.

Technical Islamic Finance Just as Ruthless as Conventional, but True Islamic Finance is Step in Right Direction

The report makes a valid critique of Islamic finance stating “Whilst there may be disquiet about some of the practices of Islamic finance institutions, as Elaine Housby has noted ‘some of the modern financial activity that is technically compliant with Islamic rules is just as ruthless in building wealth at the expense of the less fortunate as the irreligious sort’, she suggested that Islamic finance nonetheless has the potential to create meaningful dialogue with other groups.

She pointed out that the principles of Islamic finance: ‘mutual solidarity and assurance; the sharing rather than the transfer of risk; the avoidance of gambling, speculation and non-transparent contractual arrangements; using money actively in productive trade and business’, are not simply compatible with Christian tradition, but also have the potential to provide a useful spur to Christian thinking. Moreover, she suggested that it might be that the really interesting innovations in the application of Islamic finance principles will come from ‘outside academia and the large banks’, and be developed ‘on the ground in deprived communities’, and possibly through encounters between Muslims and other faith cultures which ‘could reinvigorate the expression of the underlying financial principles of these other traditions.’

An example of on-the-ground initiatives to make forms of finance that are based on Islamic principles available within local communities, and in response to those seeking to deal with debt or overcome their reliance on payday loans, such as Ansar, a registered charity based in Manchester that provides halal loans, or ‘Qard Hasan’ (benevolent loans)

Download Report

 Faith and Finance Report (1.48MB)