02 / 13 · The Market · History
The window that closed.
HSBC Amanah launched in 2003. Lloyds followed in 2005. The high-street windows mostly went away. Al Rayan remained a bank. Offa and StrideUp arrived as originators. Do not wait for Barclays to save you.
The Mizan desk · 7 September 2026 · 9 min
A window is a conventional bank’s Islamic unit. Cheap to launch, easy to close when the group wants capital elsewhere. HSBC Amanah put Islamic current accounts and home finance on British high streets in 2003. Lloyds arrived in 2005. Both receded. Islamic Bank of Britain, born 2004, became Al Rayan and is still here because it was a bank, not a division.
2003
HSBC Amanah on the high street.
2004
Islamic Bank of Britain opens.
2005
Lloyds Islamic window.
2010s
Windows shrink; full-bank model is what survives.
2022
StrideUp’s first keys — non-bank originator.
2025
Offa’s HPP licence.
Scale closed the windows. Demand did not go with them.
Why it matters now
A generation learned Islamic finance from a high-street name, then watched the name leave. Cynicism about ‘the next challenger’ is earned. It is also how the premium survives. Offa and StrideUp are not windows. They are books that have to fund themselves — hence the sukuk, hence Khan’s £40m, hence Waterfall. That is healthier than a division waiting for a global committee.