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.”