EQRAZ Inc. launches halal home mortgages across several Canadian provinces

EQRAZ Inc. launches halal home mortgages across several Canadian provinces

TORONTO, Ontario - EQRAZ Inc., a Toronto-based Islamic financial services start-up, announced today the launch of its Shariah-compliant mortgage business for Canada’s fast-growing 1.8 million Muslim population.

EQRAZ’ entire business, including products, policies, and procedures are Shariah-certified under AAOIFI standards by Bahrain-based Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), who will also be supervising and auditing the company’s offerings and operations in accordance Shariah and AAOIFI standards.

According to Syed Zuhair Naqvi, Founder & CEO of EQRAZ, “It has taken us four long years to overcome the numerous challenges facing halal mortgage offerings in Canada which prevented at-scale financing from being available. The biggest challenge we faced was developing a halal product that does not conflict with Canadian tax, disclosure and other regulations, and meets with Canadian capital-market requirements. Our product is a five-year renewable product which has been tested against all applicable Canadian banking, mortgage and other regulations by both EQRAZ counsel as well as the Schedule 1 bank that is providing halal mortgage funding. EQRAZ’ halal mortgage product avoids the regulatory and funding-related problems facing traditional Musharaka and Murabaha products being used by other firms.”

When asked about scalability, Mr. Naqvi commented, “We are proud of our partnership with some of Canada’s top players