Although the well-functioning financial structure is, in general, a key to long-term sustainable economic growth and overall stability, the debate on the relationship between financial development and economic growth remains non-fading. The theoretical literature provides startlingly different and sometimes conflicting views on the finance growth nexus. In addition to this non-fading debate on finance - growth nexus, the degree of banking competition attracted increasing attention in recent years. Banking consolidations, merger and acquisitions, fuelled by overall banking deregulations and the lowering of economic barriers led to structural changes within the banking and financial environment. This prompted concerns among some observers over the potential for monopoly power in local banking markets. In short, there are two major, but contradicting, views. On one side, there are those who support competitive banking structure as it promotes competitive market practices that lead to efficiency. On the other, there are also those who argue that banks with monopolistic power (bank concentration) may spur economic growth as they are more capable of information collection, screening and monitoring borrowers ...

In theory, the cornerstones of Islamic finance are interest avoidance and risk-sharing. In practice, however, Islamic banks seem to be lacking both, particularly the latter. We investigate the interest rate impact on Islamic banks' three most-widely used types of financing instruments - i.e. sale-based, lease-based and risk-sharing-by employing the system GMM estimators on a unique panel data set of 77 Islamic banks from 13 countries over the period 2003-2017. We find that sale- and lease-based financing instruments are negatively correlated with the interest rate and that their exposure is amplified in more developed Islamic banking jurisdictions. Risk-sharing instruments, however, appear to be out of the interest rate domain of influence except in less developed Islamic banking jurisdictions, where the impact is positive. Additionally, the above effects on sale-based and risk-sharing instruments hold true only in the case of full-fledged Islamic banks and Islamic bank subsidiaries, respectively; the impact on lease-based instruments hold under all specifications. The findings imply that predominant use of sale- and lease-based financing instruments in their current form undermines the interest-free and risk-sharing essence of Islamic banking and runs the risk of converging with its conventional counterpart.

This study investigates the impact of bank concentration and financial development on economic volatility for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries. Employing dynamic panel models, we find no evidence that bank concentration is significantly related to economic volatility when it is entered independently in the models. Meanwhile, financial development lowers economic volatility. Extending the models to include market structure - financial development interaction, we note that the impact of bank concentration on volatility depends on the level of financial development within OIC countries. More specifically, the volatility-increasing effect of bank concentration tends to be moderated by financial development. Accordingly, in the wake of banking sector consolidation in these countries, policymakers and regulators in OIC countries should focus on further developing their financial markets such that the negative consequences of resulting market concentration can be mitigated.

This paper primarily aims to review and analyze a new model for Islamic finance based on Laurence J. Kotlikoff's idea of limited purpose banking (LPB). In addition, this paper aims to highlight, explain and discuss various aspects of LPB and how it suits the original aspirations of pioneer writers in Islamic finance. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper aims to highlight, explain and discuss the reform of the Islamic finance industry based on Kotlikoff's model of LPB. Based on a modified LPB model, Islamic financial institutions could be established to provide specific services with clear aims and objectives. These LPB Islamic financial institutions would operate in a similar way to LPB. As there is no perfect plan, the proposal of this paper is far from being perfect and is open to discussions and improvements. The paper will, hopefully, spark off quite a discussion on the topic; may result in a better understanding of the model; and provide some alternative solutions to the current structurally ill financial system. The paper provides some practical ideas for a better implementation of Shari'ah principles in financial intermediation of the Islamic financial system. Kotlikoff's LPB proposal for reforming the financial system is new and has been directed to the conventional financial system. This paper represents the first attempt to apply his proposal to the Islamic finance industry.