In this episode of Muslim Money Talk, Areeb Siddiqui speaks with Sultan Choudhury OBE about the challenges and evolution of Islamic banking in the UK and beyond.

They discuss misconceptions around Islamic finance, pricing challenges, the need for stakeholder alignment, and how scale and innovation can push the industry forward.

This podcast is hosted by Areeb Siddiqui, the founder and CEO of Kestrl, the app that helps people to grow their wealth without compromise

Find out more about our app here: https://kestrl.io/

And how we help banks here: https://business.kestrl.io/

Show Notes:

00:00 - Opening trailer

02:08 - Intro and becoming a shareholder in Kestrl

05:39 - Early advice to Kestrl

06:23 - Early education and sales experience

11:00 - Studying economics and discovering Islamic Finance

15:21 - Early career and thoughts of Deloitte

19:20 - Remembering parents and their influences in entrepreneurship

22:26 - Working at Charles Schwab and learning Californian Tech Culture

26:08 - Building Islamic Bank of Britain

28:38 - Challenges in scaling Islamic finance in the UK

32:55 - Early Products & Launching Islamic Mortgages

35:40 - Adopting the cloud and new tech

38:14 - Why do Islamic Banks have bad User Experiences?

41:29 - Why are Islamic Mortgages more expensive?

49:08 - Why don’t Islamic Banks want more deposits?

51:10 - Why do returns track the BoE interest rate?

55:36 - So is this interest by another name?

56:53 - Dealing with conflicting Fatwas

59:15 - Dealing with poor UX first

1:01:47 - Why Are Islamic Banks Run By Non-Muslims?

1:05:55 - Do We Need A New Islamic Bank?

CEO Who Launched The UK’s 1st Islamic Bank: Interest vs. Profit, Expensive Mortgages & More