Sharing Risk.
Encouraging Growth.
Ensuring Charitable Impact.
We connect investors with businesses that guarantee Zakat payments - so your capital grows, your risk is shared, and your charitable obligations are fulfilled through the enterprises you back.
The businesses pay Zakat. You invest. The risk is shared. The impact is collective.
The Mutual Zakat Bank
The Mutual Zakat Bank (London) is an association of people who believe in a simple principle: that Zakat, properly applied across both investors and the businesses they back, purifies wealth and creates a financial ecosystem where everyone benefits.
Our Foundation
We hold the website address for ZakatBankInternational.org and intend to progress to full incorporation and financial regulatory independence at a later date, beginning as an association of people with shared values.
Our Approach
We are returning to risk-taking as a Muslim nation. We have become too conservative, too ossified. The sharing of risk is central to Islamic finance - and central to how we operate.
Our Commitment
Every business we introduce to investors guarantees their Zakat payments. That is the purification mechanism. That is what makes an investment ethical - not our moral judgement, but their commitment to the principle.
Rooted in Tradition
Centuries of ethical wisdom, modern application
How It Works
Investors who deposit funds with us agree to a 2.5% deduction of amounts held at each anniversary that have not been invested in any enterprise we have introduced to them. This is the incentive: invest your capital, or Zakat is taken from idle funds.
Businesses that draw funds from our investors will provide stock valuations and yearly income estimates, and remit 2.5% of said value to us by way of Zakat collection.
Zakat collected will be provided to a suitably chosen Charitable Organisation to discharge these responsibilities to the end groups as designated by God, the Most Merciful, in the Quran. We pool it - we do not distribute it ourselves - we partner with charities who distribute in the regions where we operate.
Our investors can sleep at night knowing that those they finance through us will wholly pay the poor due in a like manner to themselves.
The Marketplace
A transparent, data-rich marketplace where investors make informed decisions and businesses build their reputation on performance.
Investors Join
Ethical investors deposit funds and gain access to our marketplace of vetted opportunities. Idle funds incur Zakat - invest to put your capital to work.
Businesses Propose
Companies submit investment proposals with detailed business plans, projected returns, and their commitment to Zakat payments.
Marketplace Data
We provide data on past performance: whether businesses pay Zakat, geographic area, industry performance, how much they seek, and their business plan returns - everything you need to decide.
Outcomes & Returns
Businesses pay Zakat. You can sell your investment within the marketplace. Businesses can submit buyback proposals. Their record builds their reputation for the next round.
Data That Drives Decisions
- Past performance of individuals and businesses on the platform
- Director and Family of Director remuneration as a % of profit before costs
- Zakat payment history - has this business consistently paid?
- Geographic area and how their industry performs in that region
- Amount sought and their business plan: projected returns and timelines
- Historical record of meeting or exceeding business plan targets
- Rep score - based on investor returns on a year basis, when they exceed business plan projections, and at buy-back of loans at the end of the term
How Value Is Created
- Every business on the platform pays their Zakat - guaranteed
- You can sell your investment stake within the marketplace at any time
- Every person of critical importance within an investee is also an investor, with the means to prevent failure by buying out other investors
- If a business outperforms its business plan, then every encouragement will be given to them distributing profits above and beyond to their investors
- Businesses are encouraged to submit group buyback proposals to all their investors - demonstrating return builds their reputation
- Long-term businesses want a strong track record: it determines their ability to raise capital next time they enter the marketplace
Not Moral Police.
Just the Principle.
What Everyone Else Does
Other platforms focus on "ethical investment" - they vet companies to decide what is ethical, creating another layer of moral judgement, another hindrance in the way of innovation, and a bottleneck that slows everything down.
What We Do
We do not vet companies to decide if they are "ethical." We ensure they pay their Zakat. That is the purification mechanism. Zakat is what purifies wealth - so if a business pays its Zakat, the investment is ethical by definition. We are not the moral police. We are the marketplace that makes it work.
Sharing the Risk,
Sharing the Reward
We undertake to protect our investors through transparency, accountability, and mechanisms designed to align incentives across every party.
Vetted Opportunities
We vet companies, institutions, associations, trusts and partnerships that seek finance from our investors, and provide yearly information on their progress against anonymised business plans.
Performance Reporting
We provide reports on investees and the main people associated with them, tracking their year-on-year record measured against their business plan expectations.
Scenario Analysis
We provide assessments of where we believe investees will exceed, hit, and fall short of expectations - plus an evaluation of their contingency planning.
Return Distribution
If a business outperforms its business plan, then every encouragement will be given to them distributing profits above and beyond to their investors. This is shared responsibility in practice.
Anti-Dilution Protection
We prevent dilution by ensuring investees approach only us for further capitalisation. A pro-rata vote among all investors decides whether to fund, stop, or allow external capital.
Key Person Investment
Persons of significant control within each investee must also be investors in our service. They have skin in the game and the means to buy out other investors if needed.
Group Buyback Mechanism
Investees can negotiate a group buyout of all investors - a collective negotiation rather than fragmented individual deals. Fairer for everyone.
Liquidity Assurance
If an investor wishes to sell and cannot find a buyer within our association, we will seek to wind the investee company up. Each person of significant control will necessarily be part of our investors and can prevent that eventuality.
Opt-Out Flexibility
We keep investors informed of all group-wide investments and allow any investor to opt out of investments they do not wish to participate in.
Your Capital Should Work
If your money is sitting idle with us - not invested in any enterprise we promote - Zakat will come out of it to encourage you to invest. This is by design. Money that does not circulate does not grow, and does not benefit the community.
You have money with us. You can move it into an investment which will pay Zakat. Money you do not invest will have Zakat taken from it. It will be rolled up - we will not distribute it ourselves. We will partner with a charity that will distribute for us in the different areas where we are based.
This is not a penalty. It is the principle working as intended - a gentle nudge toward investment, toward growth, toward the sharing of risk that Islamic finance was built upon.
Fund Your Vision
Submit your proposal, commit to Zakat, and access capital from values-aligned investors. Build your reputation. Grow your business. Return to the marketplace stronger.
Access Capital
Present your business plan to a marketplace of investors who share your values. Commit to Zakat. Build your track record. Grow.
Return Stronger
Every successful round builds your reputation on the marketplace. Strong returns and consistent Zakat payments mean better terms next time you seek capital.
The International Zakat Bank
An association of people who believe in its principles, progressing toward full incorporation and financial regulatory independence.
When we think of Zakat as a Principle, we know that whilst it provides a safety net for those less well off in society, it should also allow - when applied properly across both investors and those they invest with - for you to invest in the sure knowledge that those you invest with also support the same ideals. It therefore also encourages both investment and growth, sharing risk, and allows for those who do not want the risk of uncertain outcomes to support this endeavour by providing a bedrock for our fund.
The Zakat Principle - In Full
Depositors: Individuals who deposit funds with us agree to a 2.5% deduction of amounts held at each anniversary of starting with us, that has not been invested in any enterprise we have introduced to them and maintained for them.
Stock-Holding Businesses: Organisations, associations, and companies that we finance will provide us with stock in trade at cost prices, and yearly income estimates in advance (where no physical stocks exist), at each anniversary of their starting with us. They will remit 2.5% of said value to us by way of Zakat collection. The providers of valuation services will be mutually agreed - and if not agreed, they will allow us to appoint valuers, at their cost, to perform the task.
Cash-Holding Businesses: Organisations, associations, and companies that draw funds from our investors, and those who have deposited funds with us or use our services, will in the main bank with the Bank we have chosen to provide regulatory cover for us. They will remit to us 2.5% of cash balances held in those accounts, after allowing for creditors falling due within one year (by way of deduction) including finances provided by us, but excluding unrealised debtors.
Anti-Circumvention: Each of those above will not seek to move funds around in order to circumvent the 2.5% rule above. This is a commitment, not a loophole to be exploited.
Distribution of Zakat
We, The Mutual Zakat Bank (London), and associated Association, will use the Zakat collected primarily by these means and will provide them to a suitably chosen Charitable Organisation to discharge these responsibilities to the end groups as designated by God, the Most Merciful, in the Quran.
Our application of the Zakat Principle will ensure that our investors and those that use our services can sleep at night knowing full well that they have supported an institution that takes the principle seriously, and that those they finance through us will wholly pay the poor due in a like manner to themselves.
Investment for Growth, and Sharing the Risk
We undertake to:
- 1Vet Companies, Institutions, Associations, Trusts and Partnerships (Investees) that seek finance from our investors, and provide our Investors with yearly information on the progression of their aims according to their anonymised business plans.
- 2Provide an in-house marketplace where investors can trade, buy and sell their investment stakes in investees.
- 3Provide reports on the investees and the main people associated with the investees. Track their year-on-year record of how they performed when measured against the expectations outlined in their business plans.
- 4Provide scenarios of where we believe investees will exceed, hit and fall short of their business plan expectations, and provide an evaluation of their contingency planning.
- 5Distribute the proceeds of any growth based upon an assessment of the business according to its own business plan. If a business outperforms its business plan, then every encouragement will be given to them distributing profits above and beyond to their investors. If the growth hits or misses expectations, no proceeds are provided to our investors.
- 6Prevent dilution of capitalisation of funds by ensuring that investees will only approach us for further capitalisation, and that we will initiate an in-house pro-rata vote where all investors can have their say on whether they will agree to fund further capitalisation within their own rank and file, or whether to stop further capitalisation, or whether to allow the investee to seek further capitalisation from other investors within our services.
- 7Ensure persons of significant control within each investee likewise is an investor in our service, and thereby has the means to prevent failure of their endeavour by providing funds to buy out other investors who hold rights within their endeavour.
- 8Allow the Investee to negotiate a buyout of investors who hold rights within their endeavour, as a group negotiated buyout, as opposed to individual negotiations.
- 9Seek to wind the investee company up, on the occasion that an investor wishing to sell their finance portion to another investor cannot find one within our association.
- 10Keep investors informed of the investees that we have invested in as a group, and to allow our investors to opt out of group-wide investments.
Begin Your Journey
Whether you are an investor, a business seeking funding, or simply want to learn more - we would love to hear from you.