Islamic law, or Shariah, forbids the collection and payment of interest. Yet several banks offer Shariah-compliant, no interest financing.

Community banks, such as Devon Bank, Broadway Bank and Bridgeview Bank, all in Chicago, and University Bank in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began offering Islamic home lending products at the request of their Muslim customers. While the practice is common overseas, the large national and regional banks in North America show some reluctance to offer such services citing both regulatory concerns and small demand.  HSBC, in New York, dropped these products in December 2006.

Devon Bank, however, only began Shariah-compliant home lending in June 2003, but now these loans make up more than half the bank's lending portfolio, according to an April 22, 2007 report in the Chicago Tribune.

Devon offers two different forms of mortgages to their Muslim customers.  The first, Ijara financing, requires the bank to set up a trust to purchase the house on the customer's behalf.  The customer gradually pays off the principal, while making a rent payment to the bank.  The monthly payments and overall costs to the customer tend to be about the same as a traditional mortgage payment.  The bank earns their income from the rent.  Average costs for the trust are reported at $500.

The other form of a Shariah-compliant home loan, Murahaha financing, involves the bank purchasing the home at selling it to the customer over time with a mark-up equivalent to the interest income the bank would have earned.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, there are 400,000 Muslims in the Chicago market, most of which are well-educated professionals. Likely that similar demographics may be found in other large metropolitan areas, suggesting that Muslim customers may be an attractive prospects for many community banks.