HSBC Amanah Home Finance:
- HSBC buys the property and leases it back to the customer over an agreed term - typically 25 years. HSBC owns the property until the customer makes their final payment.
- The customer makes monthly payments of rent and payments towards the purchase price.
- Rent is calculated by applying the Amanah Home Finance rate to the purchase price less payments.
- The rent rate is reviewed on 1 July and 1 January every year.
- Monthly payments are debited on the 25th of each month.
- In Islamic terms, the rent is not another name for interest, it is seen as a fair payment for use of the property rather than a charge for borrowing money.
- HSBC determines the rate for Amanah Home Finance using a payment scheme that is competitive with conventional mortgages available in the market. As determined by our Shariah Supervisory Committee, Shariah (Islamic law) permits using the conventional market as a benchmark.
HSBC Amanah - HSBC's Islamic finance division launched in 1998 - introduced UK customers to the high street's first Shariah home purchase scheme and current account in July 2003. Since then over 1,800 people have applied for £210 million of Amanah home finance and more than 1,000 Shariah current accounts have been opened. HSBC was also the first UK bank to offer trustees a Shariah pension fund in April 2004; it is now offered by over 10,000 UK employers as part of their stakeholder pension provisions.
