Anatomy of riba and interest

One may delineate the qualities of interest based banking and of the institution of usury without determining whether interest is permissible in Shari`a. Usury in pre-Islamic Arabia, which was a moral rather than economic question for the inhabitants, was detrimental to the society. At least three Qur'anic passages stand against usury. Though usury is exploitative, can the same can be said of the modern banking system? To claim, as some do, that a creditor's return in an interest bearing transaction are guaranteed is a ridiculous allegation because the risk of default on a loan is a real one. After one sees that the rate of return in the interest system and in the old usury system are not the same, one may conclude that the quality of modern banks interest do not match the qualities of riba.