Parallels Between Islamic and Ethical Banking
This article critically discusses the ‘ethical’ discourse of the Islamic Banks and examines the ‘ethical’ approach of a mainstream bank.
Islamic banks often describe themselves as being providers of ethical financial services, but they do not attempt to make the link between what is ethical and the specific methods of conducting their financial transactions according to Islamic tenants.
Although Islamic banks and Western ethical institutions such as the Co-operative Bank have dissimilar values and aspirations and they are operating in different environments, there are numerous lessons that each can gain from the other’s experience.
Therefore, this paper examines the ‘ethical’ aspect of the Co-operative bank, and attempts to establish similarities in the objectives of a conventional bank and the Islamic Banks, and identifies potential areas of learning from each other’s experience.
