[smnrchrds]

He means Islamic bank, which is basically a bank without riba. If you are interested you should look at wikipedia articles [1] and [2].

Funny thing is in Iran, which considers itself an Islamic country and says it follows Islamic laws in banking, interest rates are as high as 20%.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_bank [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riba

[jdotjdot]

I knew what he meant about Islamic banking, was more commenting on the grammar.

Interest rates can be high (or exist at all) in Iran because legally it's not actually interest. I understand it to be some sort of equity arrangement legally where the interest is actually dividends. But for macro purposes, it's interest rates.

[rmc]

Fun fact: Charging interest used to be against Christian principles aswell. Instead people would borrow from Jews (who did charge interest). The Magna Carta (in England) has sections on what exactly happens if someone ones money to Jews and dies (for example).

[jdotjdot]

That's why usury was traditionally a Jewish profession in the Middle Ages--they were the only ones allowed to do it (and sometimes it was the only thing they were allowed to do).