I tried three, but none would pay out or provide balance information, although they made payments to other people. Eventually I tried my Co-op Bank credit card, which worked, but now I will have to pay a charge for the cash withdrawal JM, Newry A. The Co-operative Bank - which also owns the Smile internet bank - confirms that its customers were unable to use cash machines, other than the bank's own, for part of 15 January. The Treasury said there was nothing in the legislation that prevented CTFs being set up to be compliant with Sharia law. Where money is invested, rather than just put in a savings account, Sharia demands strict ethical rules and prohibits buying shares in companies that produce alcohol, tobacco, arms, pork or pornography. The Government has started to send out vouchers to the parents of babies born on or after 1 September, 2002. These are worth a minimum of £250 at birth, and a similar sum when they reach the age of seven.If parents do not designate an account for the child within a year, the Government will automatically pay it into a default fund - a stakeholder scheme from one of the providers.

With no Sharia-compliant CTF, Muslim children will have their money put into investments which do not comply with the rules of their religion, meaning they will be unable to withdraw their money when they are 18.A number of banks and building societies offer Sharia-compliant services, but none have committed themselves to offering a trust fund. A spokesman said: "The Government is keen to encourage them, and it is early days in the market." Iqbal Asaria, the special adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain's secretary-general on business and economic affairs, said: "We hope that a high-street bank will be launching a Sharia-compliant Child Trust Fund, and this could be up and running as early as June."Several ethical funds could be used for the Child Trust Fund if some small, further restrictions on their investment profiles were put in place, and we hope some of the big providers will be doing this.". Children of Britain's 1.8 million Muslim families will be unable to take advantage of the new Child Trust Fund (CTF) when it is launched in April, because there is nowhere suitable to invest the money that meets the rules of their religion. But not one offers an account that is specifically compliant with Islamic Sharia law.Sharia forbids the receipt of interest on savings, so Islamic banks use a principle known as mudaraba, which is based on a profit-sharing arrangement, whereby one party provides the funds and the other provides the expertise to manage the trading activity and generate a profit. However, because this investment trust is not trading at the usual discount to net asset value, it cannot be considered cheap, Cockerill says.More than anything, though, investment professionals stress caution, diversification of risk and research for anyone wanting exposure to the exciting, but risky, Chinese growth story.. He recommends the First State Asia Pacific Leaders.There are only a handful of direct China specialist funds available to British investors.

Cockerill's and Haynes's preferred option among such offerings is the Gartmore China Opportunities fund. Another fund with quality management is the JPMF Chinese investment trust. Gavin Haynes, an independent financial adviser at Whitechurch, suggests that regular savings are a good way to invest in China, so pound cost averaging smoothes volatility. The FTSE Xinhua China 25 iShare is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and will reflect the performance of China's 25 largest companies, including China Mobile, PetroChina, BOC Hong Kong, CNOOC and China Telecom. Her other main recommendations are the Aberdeen IF China Opportunities fund and Fidelity's Greater China fund.Tim Cockerill, an independent financial adviser at Rowan & Co, warns that, because of the inevitable high volatility of the Chinese market, investors should hold no more than 5 per cent of a diversified portfolio in this area. Registration and custodial issues mean that there is a lot of red tape and expense.Some Chinese companies, however, are listed in Hong Kong and Singapore.