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Financial Institutions: Interest, Power and Moral Justifications

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Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents

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Abstract

This chapter critically examines how banks and microfinance institutions justified their lending practices and income from interest in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The lenders’ myths, norms, discourses and obligations were central in legitimising and depoliticising the unequal social relationship between lenders and borrowers. Financial relations were particularly important in neoliberal economies, because they expanded rentierism beyond the traditional forms of rent-seeking in real estate and natural resources. The chapter also evaluates two alternative forms of allocating credit (Islamic finance and a state-owned development fund) that aimed to minimise usury and finance productive investment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Balihar Sanghera

  2. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Elmira Satybaldieva

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  1. Balihar Sanghera
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  2. Elmira Satybaldieva
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Correspondence to Balihar Sanghera .

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Sanghera, B., Satybaldieva, E. (2021). Financial Institutions: Interest, Power and Moral Justifications. In: Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76303-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76303-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76302-2

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