A current account today is the basis to participate in the economic life and to make cashless payments possible. The current account normally is the main connection between you and your bank. Current accounts at Islamic banks can be either configured according to the Wadiah principle or the Qard Hassan principle.

In the Wadiah principle the Islamic bank gets payments of the customer in trust. The bank can then invest the received funds, for example by giving credits to other customers in conformity with the Shari´ah. For all these transactions the permission of the customer is necessary. Should the transactions result in losses, the contributed capital of the customers is not affected. The deposits of the customers are secure up to a certain amount via the deposit guarantee fund.

Alternatively, the current account in terms of the Qard Hassan principle can be seen as an interest-free loan of the customer to the bank. Also in this case, the Islamic bank can invest the received payments or deal in credits, which are also guaranteed up to a certain amount. The important difference between the both principles is that for Qard Hassan based deposits no rewards at all can be given to the bank, because they would be assessed as Riba and thus are not permissible.

With the Wadiah model, this is different: If you as a customer lend your money to the bank, you will also get no interest, but the bank can give you a compensation or a discount on other services or a little present.

No matter which principle is chosen: neither is allowed to pay interests nor is it allowed to keep interests in the case of an overdraw of the account. An overdraft credit or an overdraft loan is not permissible in the Islamic law. Should you as a customer overdraw your current account, normally a fix fee in Euro falls due. In general the customer is obliged to compensate a debit balance immediately.