The Ruling on a Savings Fund

Question:
There is a savings fund in the Riyadh Electricity Company in the Central Region. This fund returns amounts to subscribers: 50% to those who have completed five years, and 100% to those who have completed ten years. What is the ruling on this in Islamic law?

Answer:
This is riba (usury or interest), if it gives them money while they work with it, and gives them 50%, just like the banks, exactly the same. A savings fund is like the banks. However, if it is something among themselves, meaning a group of people who pool their money in a fund among themselves for their own needs and for incidents that befall them, and it grows through an agent who grows it for them, this is not riba; this is for their own benefit.
As for a savings fund managed by people who take people's money, work with it, and give them 50%, or 10%, or 100% after five years, or after three, or after ten, this is riba, of the same kind as riba, exactly the same.