Produktentwicklungsoptionen im Islamic Banking: Lösungsansätze, Probleme und Missverständnisse

Abstract

Product Development Options in Islamic Banking: Approaches, Problems and Misunderstandings

Ever more banks offer Sharî'a-conform products, world-wide. When developing such products, it is necessary to take into account factors relating to form and to demand as well as to banking techniques. Factors of form relate to the underlying Islamic contract constructions. Factors pertaining to demand concern the need of products with a religious content including their potential conflicts with economic efficiency. In this context, there is also a question relating to benchmarking yardsticks regarding the quality of Islamic products. Finally, banking technique factors concern civil-law, tax-law, balance-sheet law and supervisory-law aspects. In all of the aforementioned areas exist – not least because of the continuing strong dynamism of product development – unclear problems as well as tensions between religious content and economic efficiency. The Islamic financial system is at crossroads at present. It is required to clarify questions, unanswered so far with respect to objectives of Islamic forms of economic management extending beyond the currently dominating legalistic formalism in the development of products. The systemic crisis faced by conventional financial management accounts for the new topicality of the calls on Islamic economic managers and banking experts to orient the system of Islamic finance to ethical values and social objectives.