Islamic Money is the most important financial company in Australia that you cannot buy anything from. The renamed Islamic Bank Australia holds an AFSL and credit licence (534355), a Sydney address at Barangaroo, a February 2026 progress update signed by CEO Dean Gillespie, and waitlists for three products, none of which exists. This guide covers exactly what is planned, what evidence supports it, and how to treat the waitlist, based on the company's own published materials verified August 5, 2026.
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The status line, in the company's own words
The site banner says it without spin: not open, and not a bank yet. The footer is more precise: as of 1 March 2024, not an ADI and not conducting banking business in Australia; all accounts coming soon; not open for business. That candour follows the licence handback: the company returned its restricted banking licence to APRA on 1 March 2024 after raising $20 million of a $60 million plan, and legally cannot take a deposit until APRA licenses it again. Everything below is therefore a plan, not a product.
Planned product one: the Everyday Account (Wadiah)
The flagship plan is a transaction account on the Wadiah safekeeping structure: the institution safeguards your money rather than lending it out at interest, and pays no riba in either direction. Specified features include a Visa debit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay, instant notifications and app card controls, standard neobank furniture on a classical contract. Wadiah is the genuine article for halal everyday banking, the structure Islamic banks worldwide use for transaction accounts; the Wadiah explainer covers how it works and why it matters. No fees, limits or terms are published, because there is nothing to publish yet.
Planned product two: Term Deposits (Wakala)
The second plan is what the company calls Australia's first non-interest deposits: Wakala agency term deposits over one-to-twelve-month terms. You appoint the institution as your investment agent; it invests in Shariah-compliant assets; you earn a share of actual profits, with an expected profit rate estimated at the start rather than a guaranteed interest rate. This is the standard structure used by Islamic banks in the UK and the Gulf, and the Wakala explainer unpacks the mechanics, including the difference between expected and guaranteed that regulators and scholars both care about. Screening excludes pork, alcohol, gambling, arms and, notably, fossil fuels, an exclusion stricter than many overseas Islamic banks apply.
Planned product three: Home Finance (Ijarah)
The nearest-term plan is Ijarah home finance, targeted for 2026 under existing licensing since financing, unlike deposits, does not require a banking licence. The structure: you buy shares of your property over time while paying rent on the share you do not yet own. If it launches on schedule it enters a genuinely competitive field, against MCCA's $3.6 billion origination history, ICFAL's pure Musharakah, Hejaz at scale and Amanah's monthly-audited Ijarah, all with published fatwas and years of settlements. A newcomer's advantage would be integration with the eventual bank; its disadvantage is every one of those competitors' track records.
The governance bench: world-class and untested
Islamic Money's standing Shariah Committee is, on paper, the strongest bench in Australian finance: Dr Elgari sits on the Shariah board of the Dow Jones Islamic Index, Dr Hashim on the Shariah Advisory Council of the Central Bank of Malaysia, joined by Dr Raashed, a PhD in Islamic law. Product-level fatwas are stated to be issued before launch. The honest caveat: no fatwa document is published, and with no live product there is nothing for the committee to supervise. Scholar calibre of this order is a real signal about intent; published product fatwas will be the proof, and the verification guide explains how to read them when they arrive.
How the plans stack up against live products
| Need | Islamic Money's plan | What you can actually use today |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday account | Wadiah account with Visa debit (no date, needs ADI licence) | Zero-interest conventional account, disciplined per our everyday banking guide |
| Term savings | Wakala deposits, 1-12 months (needs ADI licence, targeted 2027) | MCCA Income Fund, ICFAL memberships: real returns, no FCS protection |
| Home finance | Ijarah, targeted 2026 | MCCA, ICFAL, Hejaz, Amanah, Salaam: live, with published fatwas |
| Deposit protection | Would come with ADI status | Only conventional bank accounts carry FCS today |
Milestones worth watching
- The $40 million raise closing: the single gate everything else waits behind; the investor-relations page tracks it
- An actual Ijarah home finance launch in 2026: the first product with a near-term date, and the first test of execution
- A new APRA application: re-licensing must precede any deposit product; no application means no bank, whatever the marketing says
- Published fatwa documents: the moment the world-class bench becomes verifiable rather than reputational
- Site cleanup: the live site retains template leftovers, including fictional-sounding testimonials and UK-banking copy, a small professionalism tell worth watching them fix
What the company gets right already
Credit where the record supports it. The disclosure posture is unusually honest for a pre-revenue company: the banner and footer state plainly that it is not a bank and not open, the progress update discloses the raise arithmetic rather than hiding it, TMDs are published, and the company answered the breach question directly instead of letting it hang. The fossil-fuel exclusion goes beyond the standard haram screen, a considered position rather than a copied one. And the decision to sequence home finance first, a product it can legally offer now, ahead of the licence-dependent deposits, is the first commercially disciplined choice in the company's public history. None of this earns your money; all of it earns the benefit of continued attention.
How to treat the waitlist
Join it if you want an Islamic bank to exist: waitlist depth is evidence the company can show investors, and it costs you nothing. Do not let it change a single financial decision. Keep your savings working through the existing ladder, proceed with a home purchase through live providers rather than waiting for a 2026 launch that may slip, and treat every date in this article as a target the company itself describes as contingent on funding. Hope is not an asset allocation.
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The bottom line
Islamic Money is simultaneously the most credible path to an Australian Islamic bank, with regulatory precedent, 70% of a build and a named world-class Shariah bench, and a company with zero products, zero customers ever, and a raise that has been open for years. Both facts are true, and the honest posture follows: cheer for it, signal demand, verify when products land, and run your financial life today as if it never launches. If 2027 delivers the bank, switching will take an afternoon. If it does not, you lost nothing.