Challenges facing the use of Civil Partnership contract in the Iranian Development Banks Based on Expert Opinions and Presenting Project Murabaha as Alternatives

Civil Partnership agreement is one of the most widely used contracts in the Iranian banking network, the use of which in practice is usually accompanied by numerous conditions in the contract, which removes the framework of this contract from its partnership nature. This issue has always been criticized and Islamic banking researchers have repeatedly proposed the solution of allocating the use of Civil Partnership contracts to development banks.The main question of this study is: "What are the challenges of applying Civil Partnership contract in Iranian development banks and what alternative solution can be offered in this regard?". To answer this question, the field survey method (case study in a selected development bank), as well as the two-stage Delphi method, are used to gather expert opinions. The research findings show that in practice neither the lender nor the bank have any real intention to partner with each other and their goal is simply "financing at a fixed and predetermined interest rate with minimal risk." Therefore, the widespread use of Civil Partnership contracts faces challenges such as: guaranteeing repayment of principal and interest, non-participation of the bank in losses, pricing the project based solely on expected profits, calculating accrued profits even during the project implementation period and receiving collateral (in relation to Principle, interest, penalties etc.).