Lloyds Bank drops overdraft fee for Muslims

[Anglojew]

Lloyds Bank has been accused of religious discrimination after offering free overdraft accounts to Muslims.

The bank sent customers a booklet this month explaining new charges.

While many will have to pay up to £80 a month if they go into the red, Muslims were told they would escape the charges. The document said: “We are removing the monthly overdraft management fee of £6 from our Islamic Account, Islamic Student Account and Islamic Graduate Account. So, if you use an unplanned overdraft on these accounts, there won’t be any charges.”

One customer, Anita Milton, a nurse of New Eltham, south London, said: “I can’t believe that they’re thinking of offering one account for Muslims and making everyone else pay for the same service. Do I have to change my religion to get the best deal?"

Barclays, Co-op Bank and RBS said they do not offer alternative bank accounts to Muslim customers.
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James Daley, of Fairer Finance, a consumer group, said: “The best thing would be for everyone to switch to the Islamic account to avoid these charges. But if everyone does that I doubt it will be financially viable for Lloyds.”

The Islamic account was set up by the High Street bank to attract Muslim customers by allowing them to keep faithful to their religion.

A Lloyds spokesman said Islamic accounts were intended for customers who cannot receive or pay interest under sharia, but were available to anyone, regardless of their faith.

“Our focus has always been on meeting the needs of UK businesses and personal customers. We offer a range of retail, business and investment products to meet the needs of our customers, available through all of our branches across the UK. The Islamic current account is for customers who cannot receive credit or debit interest due to their religious beliefs. All of our Islamic accounts comply with Islamic law and are available to anyone regardless of background or faith.

"These accounts are structured differently to our traditional accounts and do not offer credit interest or other features that are available on our other products. A comparison with the overdraft charging structure on other accounts is meaningless.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-accounts.html

Keep in mind in 2008 the British Government rescued this and other banks;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Un...rescue_package

That year, following the UK bank rescue package, the British Government took a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group...

Based on figures from the National Audit Office, George Osborne's sale of a 6% tranche of Lloyds shares in autumn 2013—despite his claims that the sale had netted a profit—worked out at a loss of at least £230m for UK taxpayers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyds_...to_Lloyds_Bank

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Bankers and corporatization are the root of this mess in the first place. That's where the funding for all these leftist scum politicians come from. Anyone who is remotely patriotic or honest will be excluded from politics before they even enter.

[Crn Volk]

Islamic Banking is nothing new and Aussie banks pander to Shariya Law regularly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking

[Fortis in Arduis]

I pay my bank £15, monthly, to avoid charges if I go into the red, and any interest that I receive on money in my account is so negligible that this Islamic account looks like it might be a better deal.

[GusLancaster]

I guess we can't stop or do anything about overdraft fees. But I think that the bank should be the one that should do what they need to do. As bank account owners, overdraft fees have been a bother to most of us.An enormous class action suit regarding overdraft fees involving Bank of America recently was settled by the giant retail bank. Bank of America has agreed to pay $410 million to settle a class action suit over extreme overdraft fee practices. There are an astonishing amount of plaintiffs in the case. The suit is an amalgamation of similar suits against a large amount of banks. Don’t worry; you’ll still be able to get your installment loans from these banks.

[1stLightHorse]

I pay my bank £15, monthly, to avoid charges if I go into the red, and any interest that I receive on money in my account is so negligible that this Islamic account looks like it might be a better deal.

I think you would find that many Sharia compliant options are better deals, based on their principles.

Shari'ah finance is nothing complicated it's just good common sense finance. It includes a barter system as well. The difference is that it basically eliminates the 'time value' of currency.

For example, if your money is just sitting doing nothing, under shari'ah it would not be making extra money on top because you haven't earned anything. Shari'ah compliance prescribes three ways to use money. Spend it, gift it or invest it (in businesses, not cash).

The reality is though, there's no such thing as a free lunch. If you want interest, and there is a possibility of you overdrafting your account then what do you expect the bank to do? If you aren't providing enough funds for them to invest and redistribute, it's a useless investment for you and them. That leads me to another point, Lloyds can call this shari'ah compliant all day, but it really isn't 100%, unless the funds from Islamic accounts aren't going back into usurious lending and other things that are non-shari'ah compliant.

[Anglojew]

I think you would find that many Sharia compliant options are better deals, based on their principles.

Shari'ah finance is nothing complicated it's just good common sense finance. It includes a barter system as well. The difference is that it basically eliminates the 'time value' of currency.

For example, if your money is just sitting doing nothing, under shari'ah it would not be making extra money on top because you haven't earned anything. Shari'ah compliance prescribes three ways to use money. Spend it, gift it or invest it (in businesses, not cash).

The reality is though, there's no such thing as a free lunch. If you want interest, and there is a possibility of you overdrafting your account then what do you expect the bank to do? If you aren't providing enough funds for them to invest and redistribute, it's a useless investment for you and them. That leads me to another point, Lloyds can call this shari'ah compliant all day, but it really isn't 100%, unless the funds from Islamic accounts aren't going back into usurious lending and other things that are non-shari'ah compliant.

This is one reason the Muslim world never made the huge advances in technology and innovation the West made. There was simply no incentive to invest in ideas sharia venture capital rules being rather limiting.

[Fortis in Arduis]

This is one reason the Muslim world never made the huge advances in technology and innovation the West made. There was simply no incentive to invest in ideas sharia venture capital rules being rather limiting.

Pray tell:

How do Sharia venture capital rules differ from German National Socialist venture capital rules?

I ask only because the latter proved most stimulating for innovation, so much so, that almost the entire world was required to wage war to stop them, and later, the "West" could only ask for that technology, which led to space exploration.

NS economics might seem a winning formula.

[Illancha]

This is one reason the Muslim world never made the huge advances in technology and innovation the West made. There was simply no incentive to invest in ideas sharia venture capital rules being rather limiting.

I had to laugh.

[Caismeachd]

I interviewed with them about a month pack. They had a lot of Muslims (wearing burkas) on staff.