What are the countries that have usury law?

Question

What are the countries that have usury law?

Answer 1

What are the countries that have usury law?

In the Muslim World - they have a system of Finance called Shariah Financing and Shariah Banking or Shariah which is known as Islamic Finance Banking and Islamic Finance. Especially all Muslim countries have some sort of Islamic Finances System from Dubai of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Qatar to Saudi Arabia to Malaysia.  Malaysia is light years ahead in Islamic Banking but Dubai is catching up with Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) which is links to the top Business schools in Europe and beyond. Such as the notoroius London Busines School (LBS) and others.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspap...

http://www.difc.ae/about_difc/sectors_of...

http://www.ameinfo.com/140075.html

http://www.ameinfo.com/121548.html

http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/press/press_r...

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA2...

http://www.dubaicityguide.com/GENINFO/ne...

http://www.qfc.com.qa/about/islamic_fina...

http://www.ibfim.com/

http://www.malaysianislamicfinance.com/

In other non-Muslim countries such as the United Kingdom - they do some elements of Banking that is Shariah compliant. Islamic Banking is spreading around the world rapidly fast - large banks such as HSBC, Citigroup, Deutsche Banks, Islamic Bank of Britain, Lloyds TSB and many others have special branches to cater for this facility.

http://www.hsbcamanah.com/1/2/hsbc-amana...

http://www.citi.com/uae/gcib/cf_islamic_...

http://www.citi.com/citigroup/press/2006...

http://www.alburaq.co.uk/

http://www.islamic-bank.com/islamicbankl...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6V3bfe7d...

http://www.db.com/presse/en/content/pres...

The Usury Law for other religions I think Judaism do something similar.

I came across this article on several Banking magazines and "The Economist" that they was a Bromsgrove Conference, the Christian Council for Monetary Justice, Lowell Manning's thoroughly articulated Global 2000 in New Zealand, South Africa New Economics (SANE) the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER, Toronto, Canada), and the Social Credit movement. All  these groups fully understand how money is created, how interest is added, and how important it is that should be some state creation of money to be used for patently beneficial purposes. Other groups may support state-issued money but have an additional purpose - for example the Fair World Project of John Courtneidge which campaigns for co-operative structures.

Other sources information for an interesting read:

Grip of Death, Michael Rowbotham (Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1998)  - debt-based money system.

The Money Bomb, James Gibb Stuart (Ossian Publishers, 1983)  - debt-based money system.

Interest and Inflation-Free Money, Magrit Kennedy (New Society Publishers, 1995) - debt-based money system.

Goodbye America, Michael Rowbotham (Jon carpenter Publishing, 2000) - the effects of compound interest on the Third World.

Binary Economics - the new paradigm, Robert Ashford & Rodney Shakespeare (University Press of America, 1999) - the use of interest-free money for wide capital ownership.

Democracy and Economic Power - Extending The ESOP Revolution Through Binary Economics, Louis O. Kelso & Patricia Hetter Kelso (University Press of America, 1991)  - the use of interest-free money for wide capital ownership.

Curing World Poverty: The New Role of Property, John H. Miller, editor (Social Justice Review with Center for Economic and Social Justice, 1994)  - the use of interest-free money for wide capital ownership.

Creating New Money, Joseph Huber & James Robertson (New Economics Foundation, 20000 - on debt-free money and its use.

Frozen desires: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Money, James Buchan (Picador, 1997) - on the history, idolisation and misuse of money.

The Lost Tradition of Biblical Debt Cancellations, Michael Hudson (Social Science Forum of the Henry George School of Social Science, New York, 1993) - on the once-glowing core body of law within the Judeo-Christian tradition which provided for periodic restoration of economic order and justice.



Grace and Mortgage: The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World, Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1997) - towards the recovery of that tradition.

Markets Why and Human Wherefores - Thinking Again About Markets, Politics and People, David Jenkins, former Bishop of Durham (Cassell, 2000) - towards the recovery of that tradition.

Honest Money - a Challenge to Banking, John Tomlinson (university of Chicago Press, 1993) - towards the recovery of that tradition.

The Problem With Interest, Tarek El Diwany (TA-HA Publishers, 1997) - Islamic tradition on the Economic reflection.

Banking Without Interest, Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi (The Islamic Foundation, United Kingdom) - the Islamic viewpoint.

Issues in Islamic Banking - Selected Papers, Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi (The Islamic Foundation, United Kingdom) - the Islamic viewpoint.

Islamic Banking and Finance: Current Developments in Theory and Practice - Dr Munawar Iqbal (The Islamic Foundation, United Kingdom, The Islamic Development Bank, The International Association for Islamic Economics) - the Islamic viewpoint.

Sources of extract information acquire from wikipedia:

Usury statutes in the United States

Each U.S. state has its own statute which dictates how much interest can be charged before it is considered usurious or unlawful.

If a lender charges above the lawful interest rate, a court will not allow the lender to sue to recover the debt because the interest rate was illegal anyway. In some states (such as New York) such loans are voided ab-initio.

However, there are separate rules applied to most banks. In 1980, due to inflation, national banks (banks that generally include N.A. in their name), federally chartered savings banks, installment plan sellers and chartered loan companies were exempted from state usury limits by the federal government through a special law. This effectively overrode all state and local usury laws.

Interest-free Banks

The JAK members bank represents an example of how it is possible to create an usury-free saving and loaning system, offering a feasible financial tool to all its members. Other examples of interest-free banking come from the islamic banking used in the Muslim world.

Islamic Banking

In a partnership or joint venture where money is lent, the creditor only provides the capital yet is guaranteed a fixed amount of profit. The debtor, however, puts in time and effort, but is made to bear the risk of loss. Muslim scholars argue that such practice is unjust. As an alternative to usury, Islam strongly encourages charity and direct investment in which the debtor shares whatever profit or loss the business may incur.