MUSCAT: Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic Banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, has invited all its customers to make the best use of its Savings Plan proposition, a goal-based savings product whereby customers will be able to save on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annual basis to achieve a future financial goal. The unique Savings Plan helps depositors to save and invest their money in a Shari’a compliant manner to achieve their future goals, e.g., personal savings, education, marriage or retirement. The plans are becoming steadily popular with customers as a preferred method of saving a large sum of money for financial milestones.

By saving a small amount regularly over a fixed term, customers can achieve their financial goals. Meethaq will help to grow the savings for the customer by investing the customer’s savings in its Shari’a compliant financing and investment products and adding the indicative return thereby generated to the accumulated savings to accelerate the achievement of the customer’s financial goal. 

A Recurring Deposit account facilitates the Savings Plan and all the contributions collected from the customer are added to the Recurring Deposit. This enables the depositor to accumulate a lump sum amount at maturity which he/she cannot normally achieve through regular savings or fixed deposit products. An added advantage of the Meethaq Savings Plan is that it can be started with a contribution that is as low as RO 50 per month and for a duration of 3 years or more. 

The Savings Plan is open for all customers between the ages of 18 and 64 and comes with the option of direct debit/standing order to facilitate one’s contributions. It also has an attractive indicative profit rate and inbuilt Takaful cover to protect one’s savings. All contributions are invested in Shariah-compliant investment options and come with the option of withdrawing up to 10% of the accumulated contributions in case of an emergency. A partial withdrawal may be made only once during a calendar year. The full amount can be encashed and withdrawn by a customer subject to the payment of a 1% pre-closure fee applied on the total savings plan value at the time of application.

The Takaful cover for the Savings Plan is provided complimentary to the customer to add protection to the savings in the account. The Meethaq Savings Plan is particularly useful for customers working towards financial goals like funding higher education, marriage and retirement planning needs. An illustrative table that can help customers understand the plan as well as some more details are available at https://www.meethaq.om/en/depositproducts/Pages/details.aspx#saving.

Every Meethaq product goes through Shari’a compliance certification by the bank’s Shari’a Supervisory Board and is created in line with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Oman. Recognized as The Best Islamic Bank in Oman for 2019 by Islamic Finance News, Meethaq plans to further expand its services and products across the Sultanate in the coming months.