Qatar Islamic Bank is the reference institution of Qatari Islamic banking: founded in 1982 as the country's first Islamic bank, holding QAR 221.1 billion in assets with a record QAR 4,835 million net profit in fiscal 2025, and running the sector's most complete app. Its deposit shelf is broad and, in places, brilliantly documented. It is also strangely uneven: QIB publishes the exact profit split on its Flexi CD while refusing to say what its basic savings account pays. We verified every number below against QIB's own pages on 2026-08-04. Here is the shelf, account by account.
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Current account: free, instant, salary-gated
The current account is genuinely free (no opening fee, no monthly fee, free debit card and e-statements) and opens instantly in the QIB Mobile App with a QID scan, selfie and FATCA declarations. It comes in QAR, USD, GBP or EUR, an unusual multi-currency option for a salary account. The catch is absolute: no salary transfer, no account. Expats also need an employer certificate with salary details, which shuts out freelancers and the non-salaried entirely. Foreign-currency card spending carries a 2% to 3% FX markup per the tariff booklet. As a qard-type demand deposit it pays nothing, by design.
Savings account: good bones, no rate
The Mudaraba savings account pays quarterly profit on your average daily balance, allows unlimited withdrawals, includes a free Visa debit card and opens instantly in-app. Minimum deposit: QAR 2,000 for Qataris, QAR 20,000 for expats, a ten-fold gap that will grate on newcomers. The structural problem is opacity. QIB publishes expected rates for its Growing Deposit (3.50% to 4.15%) and Flexi CD (up to 3.50%) but says nothing anywhere about what this account pays, while QIIB publishes 0.50% for its equivalent. Use it as a buffer next to your current account, not as a store of savings.
Misk: the QAR 26 million question
Misk is Qatar's largest prize-linked savings account: QAR 26 million in annual prizes across 1,124 winners, including two QAR 1,000,000 winners every two months (twelve millionaires a year), six monthly QAR 50,000 winners and twenty weekly QAR 10,000 winners. One draw entry per QAR 10,000 of minimum monthly balance, QAR 10,000 floor, draws supervised by a Ministry of Commerce and Industry representative. You still earn quarterly Mudaraba profit, but the rate is not published, and the page copy is internally inconsistent on weekly winner counts (15 in the FAQ, 20 in the features). Prize accounts trade yield for tickets; if you would hold QAR 10,000 plus idle anyway, the tickets are free. Our prize account comparison sets Misk against Al Tijori, Thara'a and Joud.
Fixed Term Deposit: the weak link
QIB's classic fixed deposit runs from QAR 10,000 (or USD, EUR, GBP equivalent) across tenors from 1 month to 5 years with quarterly Mudaraba payouts. The published rates are the problem: 0.90% to 1.45% per annum, dramatically below QIB's own alternatives and below QIIB's ladder, which pays 3.25% at one year. What it buys you is flexibility: 1-month tenors, four currencies, the ability to finance against the deposit, and minors can hold it via a legal custodian. Watch the auto-renewal: deposits roll into another full term unless you instruct otherwise at least three days before maturity.
Flexi CD: the best-documented deposit in Qatar
The Flexi Certificate of Deposit is where QIB actually competes. Two tiers: Standard from QAR 100,000 (capped at QAR 480,000) and Premium from QAR 500,000, for 1, 2 or 3 years in QAR or USD. Published expected rates reach 3.25% (Standard, 1 year) and 3.50% (Premium, 1 year). Two features stand out. First, liquidity: up to two partial redemptions, together capped at 50% of principal, penalty-free, with profit continuing on the remainder. Second, disclosure: the page publishes the actual Mudaraba split (95% to QIB as Mudarib, 5% to you), the loss-allocation clause, and the incentive mechanism. That is textbook-quality Mudaraba drafting almost no Gulf retail bank attempts. Note the inverted curve: 3-year money earns 2.75%, less than 1-year, which tells you QIB expects rates to fall.
Growing Deposit: the highest published rates at QIB
The Growing Deposit is a recurring plan: commit a fixed monthly amount from QAR 2,000 (or USD 1,000) by standing order for 2 to 10 years. Published expected rates are QIB's best: 3.50% (2 years) rising to 4.15% (10 years) in QAR, credited quarterly, with the full 95/5 Mudaraba disclosure. The design is deliberately rigid: the standing order cannot be modified or cancelled mid-term, partial redemption is not allowed, and early exit within 6 months returns principal minus a 0.10% fee with zero profit. That rigidity suits school-fee funds, Hajj savings and house deposits held by people with stable salaries. It punishes anyone whose income might wobble.
Special Deposit: income timing, hidden pricing
The branch-only Special Deposit (QAR 100,000 minimum, 1 to 5 year terms) lets you choose when profit is paid: upfront, monthly, quarterly or at maturity, with the rate fixed for the term. That payout flexibility genuinely serves retirees living off deposits. But rates are quoted only in-branch, there is no digital opening, and the early-exit math is punishing: paid profits are clawed back from principal, plus a 0.10% fee, with zero profit inside 6 months. Get the rate sheet in writing and compare it against the published 3.25% to 3.50% on the 1-year Flexi CD before signing.
The shelf in one table
| Account | Published rate | Minimum | Liquidity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | None (pays nothing) | Salary transfer | Full |
| Savings | Not published | QAR 2,000 / 20,000 expat | Full |
| Misk | Not published, plus prizes | QAR 10,000 for draws | Full |
| Fixed Term Deposit | 0.90% to 1.45% | QAR 10,000 | Early exit with reconciliation |
| Flexi CD | 2.75% to 3.50% | QAR 100,000 | 50% penalty-free redemption |
| Growing Deposit | 3.50% to 4.15% | QAR 2,000/month | Locked; harsh early exit |
| Special Deposit | In-branch only | QAR 100,000 | Full exit only, clawbacks |
Shariah governance
QIB's Shari'a Supervisory Board comprises Sheikh Dr. Walid Bin Hadi (chairman), Sheikh Dr. Abdulaziz Khalifa Al-Qasar and Dr. Mohamad Ahmaine. All three signed the fiscal 2025 attestation, published in the annual report, that QIB's operations and products do not contradict Islamic Shariah. The board reviews products and marketing and directs income from non-compliant sources to charity. Deposits run on unrestricted Mudaraba, disclosed with unusual candour on the Flexi CD and Growing Deposit pages; the savings and Misk pages leave the mechanics vaguer.
Our verdict
QIB's deposit shelf rewards structure and punishes inertia. The default path (salary in the current account, spare cash in the savings account) earns you an unpublished rate on the savings and nothing on the current. The optimised path uses the same bank very differently: Growing Deposit for committed monthly saving at up to 4.15%, Flexi CD for lump sums at up to 3.50% with real liquidity, Misk only for money you would hold idle anyway. Cross-shop the lump-sum decision against QIIB's published ladder and Dukhan's conditional savings before committing; see our savings comparison and the live bank accounts page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I open a QIB account without transferring my salary?
Not the current account; QIB states salary transfer is mandatory and requires an employer certificate. The savings account also requires an employer certificate with salary details, so non-salaried residents are effectively excluded from QIB's retail accounts.
What does the QIB savings account pay?
QIB does not publish the rate anywhere on the product page (verified 2026-08-04). Profit is declared quarterly on the average daily balance under a Mudaraba arrangement. If a published rate matters to you, QIIB prints 0.50% on its savings and Dukhan publishes its paid history.
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See side-by-side comparisons of Shariah-compliant products, or let our matcher recommend the best options for your situation.
Is the Misk account halal?
Prize-linked accounts are accepted in mainstream Gulf practice when prizes are funded by the bank rather than depositors, entries are free, and your capital and profit rights do not depend on the draw. Misk follows that template and sits under QIB's Shariah board with Ministry-supervised draws. The unpublished profit rate is a transparency issue, not a compliance one.