The economic value of “Kosher” impact banking

Financial institutions around the world are aware of customers' ambitions to conduct their financial activities in accordance with their values. In response, they are entering the impact-economy field. Israeli banking today does not operate according to Jewish law, since there is a bypass called "Heter Iska", which allows one to have unlimited banking activity. We used a quantitative model to estimate the expected economic value of a new banking track tailored for religious Jews who want to avoid religiously prohibited usury in a manner more compatible with Jewish law. Our survey revealed that, on average, employees would be willing to forgo 16 % of their salary for the benefit of working for a bank that offered such products and that customers would be willing to pay 80 % higher management fees for such products. These findings suggest that such products could be commercially viable. This work falls into two topical areas covered by this journal: Religion and Attitudes (specifically, corporate behavior) and Religious Practices (specifically, economic behavior of individuals and groups of individuals).