Australia’s first Islamic bank has been granted a license, allowing Muslims to access mortgages without paying interest – a practice forbidden in their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) granted the country’s first Islamic bank a restricted license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Islamic Bank Australia CEO Dean Gillespie described the home financing scheme as a “joint ownership model”, with customers charged rent while they are living as a tenant in the bank’s share of the property, instead of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“[The customer] might start off with a 20 per cent deposit…that means they’d start off owning 20 per cent of the house and the bank would own the other 80 per cent,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What we allow [the customer] to do is buy more shares of that property over time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the customer makes rental payments, their share in the property increases, until they become the full owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In accordance with Islam, the bank is also forbidden from dealing with certain industries including gambling, alcohol and pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Islamic Bank Australia will test its products including home finance, savings and everyday accounts with a small number of customers, with a view to launching publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Islamic Bank Australia CEO said the institution aims to open to the public by 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia’s first Islamic bank has been granted a license, allowing Muslims to access mortgages without paying interest – a practice forbidden in their faith. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) granted the country’s first Islamic bank a restricted license. Islamic Bank Australia CEO Dean Gillespie described the home financing scheme as a “joint ownership model”, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":86650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[50,852,207],"class_list":["post-86649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","tag-australia","tag-bank","tag-islamic"],"yoast_head":"\n