Islamic insurer Salaam Halal in run off

by Gill Montia

Story link: Islamic insurer Salaam Halal in run off

The UK’s first Islamic insurance company has closed to new business.

The enterprise was launched by Principle Insurance Company, trading as Salaam Halal, in July of 2008 with a motor insurance offering aimed at the 1.6 million Muslims living in Britain.

One year later it branched out into business and home insurance.

The firm’s policies are Sharia-compliant meaning that the risk is spread between all policyholders registered with the company, whereas conventional insurers transfer the risk from the policyholder to the insurer.

Customers have paid their premiums into a fund invested in enterprises acceptable to Islamic law and any surplus accrued is returned to them.

However, the Daily Telegraph has reported that the business failed to raise enough capital to continue trading and its website now states: “We are sorry, Salaam Halal insurance is not accepting any new requests for insurance quotations or issuing new contracts.”

Contracts with existing customers will be honoured and Salaam Halal’s claims team is still available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.