A Manitoba Credit Union has become the first major financial institution in Canada to offer mortgages geared towards the needs of devout Muslims.

On Wednesday, Winnipeg-based Assiniboine Credit Union (ACU) announced it was launching an Islamic Mortgage Program. Currently, the majority of the Winnipeg's roughly 13,000 Muslims rent or don't own the homes they live in, the credit union said. For-profit loans are problematic for people of the faith because the Qur'an forbids the payment of interest.

Under the program, the credit union and the homebuyer enter into what ACU calls a "declining partnership agreement." Both parties co-own the home and its title. "During this time, the family has exclusive rights to live in the home and in exchange they agree to pay ACU a profit. At the end of the contract the Muslim family is the sole owner of the home," the credit union said in a press release.

The would-be homeowner must contribute a minimum of 20 per cent of the home's price at the start of the agreement, ACU said. The plan was developed with the help of Islamic religious scholars in Canada and the U.S., the credit union added.

Source: CBC News, www.cbc.ca