I will be responsible for building core functionalities for a digital payment processor. This solution intends to replace ePOS or VirtualPOS but also has in plan to extend payments through MicroCredit partnerships and use of overdraft. Am I going to be accountable for the interests taken by MicroCredits or overdrafts even if these are planned but no yet implemented before me quiting this project?
PS: My work might be rewarded from employee equity. Also at the same time I have another paying job.
May Allah bless you.
Facilitating interest payments is not permissible in Islam. However, if you are just building the processor and will leave before they start to implement their projects, then I believe your role is permissible.
In terms of the reward from equity, it depends of the nature of the business of the company and their sources of income. If both are halal, then the reward too will be halal.
Thank you for your quick response.
The central bank currently have legislation only for payment processors and our solution will be focused around that but later on it might trasition to neobank.
The employee equity will be from initial capital or investments that will be seeking from investors (don’t know yet who) after first release candidate. I don’t know the source of income but I might ask.
the thing is, if you have equity in a company that will be offering banking services which are not shariah compliant, then you cannot benefits from the profits it makes later on.
So are you saying that your equity will remain beyond the launch of this project, or is it just until you have built the processor?
I would avoid taking equity in this kind of business. I would instead as for an income remuneration instead. They will inevitably use their product in haram ways and you can’t really take equity from one bit of a business only. You own equity in the overall business.
Now, another interesting twist here is that equity is sometimes not actually given - rather you have an option to buy the shares at the current price. The idea is you exercise your option upon an M&A or IPO and then you realise your profit. But in that situation you could argue that you will sell the shares at the time, and not hold them long-term now that you have it.
Interested to hear @Mufti_Billal thoughts on this nuance.
After speaking to the questioner privately and given his situation. I have deduced that, if a mechanism can be put in place to separate the haram profit from the halal one, then I have no objection for him to have equities in this business.