Can Revenue Bonds Be Halal?

The CORE Criteria of Halal Investment Certificates 

Compliance with Islamic Principles

One critical distinction between revenue bonds and Islamic investment certificates is the halal certification process.  In order to be considered halal, an investment certificate must undergo and pass a religious review by a board of Islamic scholars prior to issuance.  The board then issues a fatwa certifying compliance with Islamic investing standards.¹  The examination includes the security's structure and purpose as well as the business operations of the underlying assets.  Not only must the security be structured to avoid paying interest, the assets financed must avoid involvement in businesses such as alcohol, tobacco, pork processing, and other activities prohibited by the Islamic faith. 

 

Fatwa  "FahT-wah":  A legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader ²

 

Guidelines issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), a Bahrain-based Islamic financial standards organization, state that securities given a fatwa must also be subject to ongoing monitoring by an Islamic board.  AAOIFI specifies that each security’s prospectus "must explicitly mention the obligation to abide by the [Islamic] rules and principles" and that an Islamic board must approve the issuance and monitor its implementation throughout its duration.³  

While AAOIFI establishes rules and guidelines for market participants, it does not ascertain or opine as to whether any particular issuer’s security meets or exceeds them.  Other Islamic financial standard-setting organizations, such as the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and the Islamic Fiqh Academy, aim to establish best practices.  Despite their differences in approach, standard-setting organizations collectively agree on what constitutes an Islamic-compliant security.  Conventional revenue bonds do not conform to these established parameters.  The process of obtaining a fatwa is an important, distinguishing characteristic of what makes sukuk compliant with Islamic principles. 

Ownership of Assets

Halal investing principles require that investment certificates, such as sukuk, be structured to ensure sharing of profits and when appropriate, losses.  To accommodate the need for shared risk, halal non-equity income investment certificates must represent ownership or beneficial ownership interests (usufruct) in assets or a commercial enterprise.  In the case of an asset-backed sukuk, for example, this requires a legal transfer of the assets from the originator to the investors.⁴  

 

Payments to the certificate holders are based on the net profits generated by the underlying assets

 

Payments to the certificate holders are based on the net profits generated by the underlying assets, and holders accept a share of any losses incurred.  The issuer cannot guarantee the security's investment return or establish a predetermined price (principal repayment) at the end of investment certificate's tenure;  hence establishing a true risk and profit-sharing relationship that results from ownership.  Because revenue bonds are structured as debt repayment contracts, they do not fulfill the ownership component required of halal investment certificates.

Risk-sharing

Islamic economic thought prefers profit-sharing modes of financing in which the financier assumes some business risk.  As a result, both the investor and the issuer of the investment certificate must share in the enterprise's risks and returns.  This is, in part, a primary reason why halal investing prohibits instruments that derive returns from interest payments on loans or debt – they fail to satisfy an important risk-sharing tenet of Islamic principles. 

The distinction between interest and profit arises from the fact that they are earned in different ways.  Profit is earned through business operations or assets subject to risk, while interest is obtained in a risk-reduced manner because the interest payments received have no direct relationship to the performance of the underlying assets. In effect, an interest-based loan is the sale of a given amount of money for more money.  Islamic principles consider money to be an intermediary between goods, therefore charging interest on loans is considered unjust.  The unbalanced risk allocation between revenue bond issuers and investors disqualifies revenue bonds as halal investments. 

Exposure to Enterprise Risk

Conventional bondholders receive cash flows that are independent of profit or loss earned from the funds raised through issuing bonds.  Unlike shareholders, bondholders receive rewards that have been determined and agreed upon in advance through a contractual agreement and covenants that obligate financial performance of the issuer regardless of how the underlying assets perform.

As a result, creditors are not exposed to the uncertainties, or risks, of the underlying assets or business enterprise but rather the creditworthiness of the issuer itself.  In other words, creditors do not share the risks faced by the enterprise they finance.  It is for this reason that interest-based bonds are risk-transferring rather than risk-sharing contracts.  The ownership and risk-sharing structure of halal investment certificates exposes them to a risk of loss if the underlying assets lose value or the enterprise fails to produce a profit.  Because revenue bond investors do not assume the risk of the underlying enterprise they finance, revenue bonds are not considered halal.

Conclusion

The best way to think about whether any security may be labeled halal is to determine whether the investment spreads risk and affords beneficial ownership to the parties involved.  Does it include a risk-sharing component ensuring that investors' and issuers' interests are aligned?  Does the investor have an ownership or beneficial ownership interest in assets or a commercial enterprise?  Is the investment contract free of obligations or guarantees of investment results?  Has the security undergone an Islamic review and obtained a fatwa ascertaining whether the security and issuer meet Islamic standards?  The answer to these questions with regard to revenue bonds is a resounding "no."  At their core, revenue bonds are not halal.