CFR

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc.

HARAM — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSstock

Is CFR Halal?

Conventional commercial-and-retail bank (Frost Bank) — primary business model is earning interest (riba) on loans and securities; categorically prohibited under Islamic law.

What You Should Know

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. is the holding company for Frost Bank, a conventional commercial-and-retail bank. Its March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q reports assets of $52,724.557 million, an interest-bearing-liability proxy of $33,014.502 million, cash of $7,144.411 million, securities of $20,233.751 million and quarterly interest income of $577.967 million. Interest income was 80.91% of the combined interest and non-interest income proxy, and earning interest on loans, deposits and securities is the core business activity. The conventional-bank activity fails the examined Sharia screen independently of the balance-sheet ratios; this is a filing-based analysis, not a claim about every external agency.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Interest income is 80.91% of the combined quarterly income proxy and is core to the business model
  • Debt/assets is 62.61% and liquidity/assets is 51.93%, above the examined limits
  • Commercial and consumer lending, deposits and securities are conventional interest-bearing activities
  • Insurance and wealth-management fees require separate review
  • Islamic banking structures are materially different from Frost's conventional model

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-15.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
62.62%Above limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

33,014.502 / 52,724.557

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
51.93%Above limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

27,378.162 / 52,724.557

Receivables + cash / assets
17.09%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

9,012.152 / 52,724.557

Non-compliant income / revenue
80.92%Above limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

577.967 / 714.282

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 62.61%, liquidity is 51.93% and interest income is 80.91%; the asset and core-activity screens fail.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 62.61% and liquidity is 51.93%, above the examined MSCI limits; interest is also the core activity.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 62.61%, liquidity is 51.93% and core interest activity fails; this is not an official classification.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Fails

A licensed historical market-cap series is not stored; the conventional-bank core activity fails independently.

Business-activity disclosure

Cullen/Frost is the holding company for Frost Bank, a conventional commercial-and-retail bank whose primary activity is interest-bearing loans, deposits and securities. Earning riba as the core business is prohibited under the examined Sharia framework.

Limitation: The filing clearly discloses interest as the core revenue stream; no minority-revenue or purification treatment can convert a conventional commercial bank into a permissible core activity.

Purification

Interest income is disclosed, but purification is not applicable to a conventional bank whose core activity is earning interest; no percentage is inferred.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions from Cullen/Frost's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q.
  • The debt proxy includes interest-bearing deposits, federal funds purchased, repurchase agreements, junior subordinated debentures and subordinated notes.
  • Cash and cash equivalents are $7,144.411 million; held-to-maturity, available-for-sale and trading securities total $20,233.751 million.
  • Accrued interest receivable and other assets are $1,867.741 million; bank loan receivables are part of the core banking asset base.
  • Total interest income is $577.967 million and total interest plus non-interest income is $714.282 million for the quarter; interest is the core business activity.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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