Islamic credit cards in South Africa

The market

South Africa is the most mature Islamic retail banking market of the five researched: one full Islamic bank (Al Baraka) plus three conventional banks running genuine Islamic windows (Absa, FNB, Standard Bank), each with its own Shariah committee, in a country where Muslims are a small minority. It is the only one of the five with a certified Shariah card from a mainstream bank. It is also the market where the honest limits are most visible in writing: Absa publishing that its bundled card is not compliant, and Al Baraka's announced credit card still absent two years after being called imminent. The prior that 'South Africa is the most likely of these five to have a real Islamic credit card' was correct — with the caveat that what exists is a charge card.

Who decides what is compliant

No national Shariah authority. Governance is per-institution: Standard Bank has a Shari'ah Advisory Committee (chaired by Mufti Zaid Haspatel, with Qari Mohamad Sauleh Peck and Mufti Yusuf Suliman), Absa has an Independent Shari'ah Supervisory Committee, FNB has a Shari'ah advisory committee that approves all Islamic Banking agreements, and Al Baraka has a Shariah Supervisory Board. In practice a small circle of South African muftis sits across several of these committees — Mufti Zaid Haspatel appears both as Standard Bank's SAC chairman and as a Shari'ah adviser referenced by Nedbank.

Rules that limit you

• National Credit Act affordability assessment applies to credit providers (Standard Bank is NCRCP15)
• No national Shariah authority; per-institution Shariah committees, with overlapping membership across banks
• Published bank fee schedules include VAT at 15%
• AAOIFI standards not mandated, though at least one Standard Bank scholar is AAOIFI-accredited