The public’s perception about Islamic banks is that, they are ethical banks founded on religious precepts hence; they would be more transparent when compared to conventional banks, but our preliminary studies proves that perception to be wrong. This paper examines the levels of expected and actual ethical identity disclosures by Islamic banks using various dimensions of ethical identity disclosures for 21 banks in Bahrain and Malaysia. The main source of data is the annual reports of each bank for five consecutive years, 2007 to 2011. Data collected were analyzed using Ethical Identity Index (EII) model and Descriptive Analysis. Based on EII analysis, we found that, the aggregate actual applied disclosure in both Malaysia and Bahrain is only 51.7% of the expected industry benchmark. We also found that, the most applied disclosure levels in both countries is the debtor’s dimension (77.7%) and the least applied disclosure dimension is the environment disclosures (6.6%). Other important dimensions that might impact on Islamic bank’s future acceptance, profitability, growth, sustainability and reputation were less disclosed. Hence, we conclude and recommend for a collective effort and commitment by both regulators and Islamic bank’s management to ensure increased ethical disclosures to meet the public perception and expectations.

This empirical paper was aimed at exploring and analyzing the earnings management practices which is often refers to as “Figure Massaging”. The aim of this study is to gather further evidences as to whether these practices constituted an act of misconduct or fraud while taking into consideration the modern business environment's challenges. The analysis provided us with an appropriate evidence that on average, the listed alleged fraud firms in Malaysia had aggressively managed their reported earnings prior to the alleged fraud year and continue to smoothen their earnings subsequent to alleged fraud year through both accruals and real earnings management.

This chapter examines the role of Islam in the economic development of Malaysia, one of the most economically developed Muslim nations and one of the most successful in effecting Islamic institutional reforms.

This paper examines two types of earnings management practices, the techniques employed, the motives behind the practices and the likely good, bad or ugly implications of each. The examination and analysis of this study indicates that earnings management practices based on manager's personal motives is the ugliest with the worst negative implication. However, the result of the analysis had provided insight that improved disclosure by both managers and management will reduce the risk of bad or ugly practices. It also provided an insight for future research on the implications of various motives behind earning management practices highlighted in the paper.