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Fatwa CenterIs It permissible to deposit money in an interest-based bnk?
Question
Is it permissible to keep an empty current account in a riba-based bank to which I deposit money when I would like to make an online payment, such that the money sits in the account for a brief moment until the payment is made, and then the account returns back to being empty? Does this not come under assisting in sin considering that the money can still be used by the bank in that brief moment before I make the payment? I do not meet the necessity of depositing money due to fear of losing it.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Opening an account at an interest-based bank, and keeping it empty with no money resting inside, is no cause for harm in Islam, so long as a genuine, permissible need calls for it. It may serve as a tool for making payments or transfers whenever the need arises. And if that need is met by a current account, one that earns no interest, then opening a savings account is not permissible.
The default ruling is that placing money in interest-based banks is forbidden as it strengthens the bank and empowers it to put money to work in usurious dealings, and that is cooperation in sin, which Allah the Almighty has forbidden: {And do not cooperate in sin and transgression} [Quran 5:2]
And if an Islamic bank exists, or a Sharia-compliant electronic payment method that serves the same purpose, then opening an account or making any deposit in the interest-based bank is not permitted at all, because the need has vanished. The resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Academy states: "It is forbidden for every Muslim who is able to deal with an Islamic bank to deal with usurious banks, at home or abroad. He has no excuse while the Islamic alternative exists. He must change the impure for the pure, and let the lawful make him independent of the unlawful." [End quote]
But when no Islamic alternative is within reach, and you must settle your obligations or buy and pay online, then the need takes the place of necessity, for using banks to transfer and pay has become a general need of this age. On that basis, you may deposit only the amount required and complete the transaction on the spot, taking no interest at all.
Yet this permission has a boundary: it is limited to the brief time needed to complete the transaction. The money must be withdrawn or spent as soon as it arrives, so that the account returns to empty. In this way, the bank is denied any chance to invest that money in its usurious financing.
In summary: you may make an immediate deposit in an interest-based bank to complete an electronic payment and empty the account at once, on two conditions. First, you have no Islamic alternative that provides this service. Second, the account involves neither taking nor paying any interest.
Allah Knows best
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