Al Rayan Bank boosts awareness of Islamic Mortgage alternatives with national billboard campaign

Timed to coincide with the beginning of holy month of Ramadan, Al Rayan Bank has launched a national billboard campaign to boost awareness of its Islamic Home Purchase Plan (HPP) range. HPPs and Buy To Let Purchase Plans (BTLPPs) are Sharia compliant mortgage alternatives which enable customers to finance a home or property purchase without paying interest, which is not permitted in Islam.

The billboard campaign, which will run until mid-Ramadan (w/c 5 June), is in response to the UK’s growing interest in Sharia compliant banking products*. High profile billboards have been strategically located in Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and two areas of London, Whitechapel and Tooting. Each billboard is individually tailored to a specific area, introducing the Bank’s representative in that location and directing prospective customers to individual web pages. In this way, as well as raising awareness of Islamic mortgage alternatives, the campaign will help to establish the profile of the Bank’s representatives in the communities they serve.

Ben Collins, Senior Marketing Manager of Al Rayan Bank, said of the campaign: “We’re committed to making Sharia compliant home and property finance as accessible as possible throughout the UK, and we have launched this campaign to build upon the increased interest that we have seen in our products in recent months. Ramadan is the perfect time to raise awareness, as Muslims use this period as an opportunity for self-evaluation and to contemplate their faith.”

HPPs and BTLPPs are joint ownership agreements which do not involve interest, as Muslims believe that interest promotes financial unfairness in transactions which ultimately leads to financial unfairness in society. Al Rayan Bank’s customers purchase their properties together with the Bank as partners. Customers’ monthly payments to the Bank include an acquisition payment, which increases their share in the property, and a rental payment for use of the portion of the property that they do not yet own. Al Rayan Bank’s HPP range is fully approved by an independent Sharia Supervisory Committee (SSC), consisting of eminent scholars with decades of experience in Sharia and financial law.

Al Rayan Bank is a wholly Sharia compliant bank, founded on faith-based, ethical principles which are derived from trade, entrepreneurship and risk-sharing, in which the customer and bank work together as partners towards a mutually profitable end. These principles prohibit the Bank from investing savers’ deposits in unethical activities such as gambling, pornography, tobacco, arms and other commodities not in keeping with the values of Islam.

The Bank was established in 2004 and has been a pioneer of British retail Islamic banking. The first wholly Sharia compliant retail bank in the UK, it has earned a reputation for providing innovative products which appeal to people regardless of faith. In 2016, the Bank was named as the third fastest growing bank in the UK, by pre-tax profits, in a complete analysis of the all 155 UK incorporated banks**.

As an independent UK bank, Al Rayan Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority and is a member of Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

* Demand, as measured by the volume of eligible HPP and BTL enquiries to the Bank, which increased by 13% in January 2017, compared with the same period last year. And by the number of HPP and BTLPP completions, which increased by 227.6% in January 2017, compared with the same period last year.

** Bank League Tables 2017, a complete financial analysis of all 155 UK incorporated banks, Searchline Publishing 2017