I think there should be an option (because why not - simple toggle wont hurt and isnt hard to program, after all it would save bunq some money).

But for now I think toggling every investment off will help that nothing shady is done with your money. In fact your money wont make any revenue, but you still will be given the same interest than anyone else. So it is more a gift than real interest. Until there is an option for toggling interest off, a solution would be to donate the money you get through interest to charitable causes - perhaps red half moon for the muslims or any other one you like. By doing that you will not gain any personal advantage from interest (which at least in bible and quran is the motivation to ban interest for believers, to not take advantage over your brother and sister) and the money bunq basically gives you for free serves some higher purpose. I think for most religiously motivated people something like that could be a temporary solution which satisfies most interpretations of the respective scriptures.
Just my few thoughts on that topic.

Hi 👋🏼 All,

Thanks for the thoughts! Personal, I personally really love the investment choices bunq 🌈 presented tonight! But, bunq did slightly shifted from having the option not to invest, to always invest in something. bunq 🌈 did always already invested in bonds, but that was never funded with money of bunqers. So, I can understand that some people are not happy to have lost the zero investment option and feeling less free in their choices.

I personally love to be able to put my money to some good use.

@JohnDo#67716 I agree, it’s been one of the most requested things in the community that bunq should do more with customers money, which means investment which means interest, yes there are some people against it, but that is based on fear, old-fashioned and out dated views and a serious, serious lack of understanding of how the (international) banking world works. There is literally no, I REPEAT no bank in the world that doesn’t have to deal with interest one way or an other, even so called Kosher or Islamic banks, no matter where they are based, be it Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or UAE/Dubai/Saudi-Arabia/etc., who or which people leads them or what their published principles are do encounter interest, negative and positive in their business. It’s just the way the world works. And yes, most of the times this means money is stored in such a way that negative interest is payed with positive interest on the other side, but there is literally no bank that does not use every trick in the book to optimize this exchange, some times resulting in a small profit of the remainder of positive interest. For Kosher or Islamic banks this means they will invest this tiny tiny profit for projects to the poor or offer it to other charities. So no matter how much you believe there may be a bank out there that offers zero interest, based on the Kosher or Islamic principle, the reality is, there isn’t. World wide economies are intrinsically linked together. That’s a fact. Even more scary, a lot of those Kosher/Islamic banks will hide the fact that they have to deal with interest at all or call it"profit sharing", at worse some even keep practices that would turn your stomach. But let’s not get into that. Suffice it to say, they hide a lot of (dirty) stuff from their customers in sake of Kosher or Islam.

So, to surmise, the way bunq does this is actually the best way no matter your convictions. They choose to share all interest to all customers as gift. And no, let’s not start the product price discussion again. bunq premium will stay € 7,99. (or €5,- in pack) or € 9,99 for business.

@DaveFlash#67731 Lol. Sorry but this one is a bit funny. The whole argument you heard in general at first always was "Bunq doesn't invest money whilst all those old traditional banks do! Say farewell to those that invest in filthy practices!". Now that they do invest, it's suddenly "Not wanting to invest is based on old-fashioned ideas! You should embrace investments!"? That point can't seriously be argued with a straight face imho. It was also THE argument you heard the most when discussing the prices. "Bunq is so expensive because they don't invest, they have to cover the costs and that's why it's €7,99! And I'm happy to pay that because I know my money isn't used for investments." (Which wasn't strictly speaking true to begin with, bunq always invested.). Well, that's an interesting turn of events then. (And again, I don't really care myself but it is rather ironic to see the 180 degrees turn in arguments...)

Islamic banks, best to my knowledge, actually don't deal in interests at all but in profit sharing by the way. In the end it's relatively the same result, but it's not actually the same thing and also not at a variable rate. They most certainly do invest, but the problem isn't investing itself - it's allowed to invest and get a return. But it's the interests being paid that's a problem, whether that's negative (asking you to pay interests) or positive (you getting interests from someone else - or a bank). What bunq is doing now is not the same as profit sharing.

@DaveFlash#67731
Yep. But reality is, islamic banking does exist - and banks have found ways to „work around“ paying interest outright, which are (often) considered to be compliant with religious custom and law.

Not bunqs. I don‘t think bunq has explicitly stated that they weren’t going to pay any interest forever (they did, in fact, reserve the right to charge interest in case of unplanned overdrafts), However, with their positioning with regards to investment and interest, I’m still a bit baffled there’s no opt-out. I thought it is quite well-known that some religions prohibit paying or receiving interest.

I could have predicted this issue to come up from the top of my head..

@LH-Black-Wolf#67737 correction, the previous argument was, that bunq does not invest in ''wrong things''. bunq has always said, since it's founding that If and when they can offer a safe and sustainable (sic) "green way" to invest money they will, every bank has to. I've never been against that. Even Kosher/Islamic banks invest in stuff, malls, huge airports, magnificent skyscraper hotels. They call it "profit sharing" and look the other way, never telling the full or whole truth to their most devout of cuddle (sic) sheep of customers.

Have a read through this 2016 article of AsianInvestor.net. (I've included their conclusion below)

Conclusion
Overall, the findings indicate that the profit rates of Islamic banks and finance companies are driven by the movements of interest rates of conventional banks and finance companies, respectively. These findings raise some doubts as to whether Islamic banks deposit rates are based on the profit-and-loss sharing (PLS) paradigm in practice, where returns are obtained through mudarabah or musharakah contracts.

In fact, it seems this is not the case, probably due to competitive pressure on the part of Islamic banks to meet investor expectations and the profit-maximisation mentality of customers. A very large percentage (more than 70%) of customers of Islamic banks and finance companies are non-Muslims who want to earn the highest rates on their deposits or lowest rates for financing, irrespective of the type of banking system. Furthermore, lengthy due diligence for PLS instruments and the lack of an Islamic secondary market makes it more challenging for Islamic banks and finance companies to operate fully using the PLS paradigm.

The findings imply that Islamic banks are not different from conventional banks, except for different branding to cater for a different category of clients.

The disparity in the expectation and practice of Islamic banks has reputational risk implications and is not healthy for the long-term future of the industry. The main challenge for policy-makers and regulators is to provide a proper platform and time line for gradual but effective compliance in the near future. In addition, creating better public awareness of this niche banking sector is also important for its long-term survival.

@NiB#67742 see my update above. it's mainly branding to cater to a niche market. there simply does not exist a bank completely free from interest. it's not possible and not healthy for any economy. And as this article states, Islamic banks should become much more transparent and create public awareness for their Islamic costumers that there is NO-WAY to have a completely interest free bank account, creditcard, mortgage etc, no matter what they call the product, behind the scenes it will always be linked to some form of interest one way or another. The only way to get rid of interest is to summon your governments to go to full reserve banking system, whereby each banks gets to store all the customers balances with them selves or other companies, and not statebanks or ECB. thereby a bank always has the full value of customer credit available. and maintaining that balance doesn't cost them anything.