Islamic banks -- a short survey

While oil income has aided the development of Islamic banking, it is neither grounded in petrodollars nor limited to the Arab region of the globe. Particularly in Pakistan, but also in other parts of the Islamic world, the notion of interest-free banking was probed as early as the 1940s. Islamic savings banks operate on the premise that the masses have not found a place in the conventional financial system. It is said that perhaps over 90% of Muslims have no bank accounts at all. Saved wealth is held in jewelry and similar assets as a store of value. Conventional banks are unable to get people to cease such behavior, which is a huge loss of potential resources. In 1963 in the town of Mit-Ghamr, Egypt, the first Islamic bank offered a savings-and-credit fund, an investment fund, and a social fund. There was noteworthy success in galvanizing funds and drawing them in. There are a number of commercially-bent Islamic financial institutions in Bangladesh, Dubai, and Sudan. Islamic