One of the most significant issues in the Islamic banking system is the share of depositor with respect to return on his capital. No one would say that the depositors are entitled to only receive the nominal interest, which is for example 15-18% in banking interest, while the inflation rate is much higher than this. Because in this case, the real profit of the depositor is negative. Neither an Islamic jurisprudent nor an economist would agree to this. There should be a fair relation between the owner of a saving and the right which he is entitled to.
In the framework of Islamic contracts, the money deposited with a bank would be invested somewhere and the owner of this capital must be benefited from his real share based on the contract and in accordance with the investment return. There is no talk on the percentage of interest.
There are two ways through which the depositor can get an interest rate which he/she deserves:
One way is that the banking interest should grow above the inflation; this is a simple solution which is recommended by many. However, there are some risks associated with this process:

1. Raising the interest rate would normally lead to a rise in production costs and this will escalate inflation. In other words, the depositor assumes that he is not bearing a loss in the short term because the interest rate is above the inflation, whereas in the long term, this will lead to more inflation itself and banks will have to raise the interest rate again, and finally, there will be a competition between the rate of banking interest and the inflation.

2. With the increase in the inflation, which is a result of increasing the banking interest rate, those who do not have any savings in banks would bear the brunt of inflation escalation. By protecting the interests of a group of people at the cost of another group, a country cannot create a secure environment for economic activities including investment.

3. In a society where it is necessary to create employment opportunities and eliminate unemployment, expansionary monetary policies must be adopted. It is never advised that banking interests be raised under such circumstances.

4. The proportion between the banking interests and return on capital should be heeded. If the return on investment is low and the banking interest rate is high, then there would be an imbalance with negative impacts on economy.

5. It is not a practical way to raise the interest rate in accordance with the inflation. In 1995, the inflation was as high as 50% in Iran. Is it possible to suddenly increase the interest rate to about 60% in a year like that and then reduce it again when inflation is decreased to 20% in the next year?

6. The ratio of interest rate to the growth of GNP is also of a special significance. If the interest rate is more than the GNP growth rate, it means that depositors are getting a bigger share from GNP comparing to what the owners of labor force get, and this means the latter will become poorer than the former.

Some people advocate the liberalizing of prices in order to make the market more stable. They also say we should not worry because when the commodity prices are high, many would turn to manufacturing activities and this would raise the supply, leading to a decrease in prices again. This was the argument based on which we started our adjustment policies. But when in 1995, the inflation reached 50%, everybody said we should seek a solution to solve it. This was true also about exports. With the high prices inside the country traders cannot export, thus the goods remain in the warehouses. Why? The reason was that incomes did not increase in proportion with the increase in prices. We should learn how to solve a problem without making another difficulty. When high interest rate can make these problems, then the best solution is to decrease inflation rate. That is the best way to preserve the right of depositors.