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Faith and finance: How religious norms shape modern personal financial decision-making

General view of Flame Tower and Turkish Mosque in Parliament Street on November 1, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Photo: Aziz Karimov/Getty Images

A thorough understanding of this interaction is important for financial institutions, advisers, and regulators to establish inclusive and fair systems.

Personal finance can be described as a values-neutral discipline, driven by numbers, market mechanisms, and regulatory rules. In practice, the methods where individuals manage their financial lives is partly formed by deeper belief systems and social norms.

Religious traditions are often among the most influential instances, playing a decisive role