This paper discusses the challenges in measuring the gaps and developing human capital to cater for the booming of Islamic financial services industry. While the need for highly trained manpower in the Islamic financial services industry is well-acknowledged, the root of the problem is primarily due to skills mismatch within the Islamic finance industry. This paper proposes a holistic approach to human capital development as the fundamental solution to the skills mismatch within the financial services industry, Islamic and conventional alike. The significant contribution of this paper lies in the competency model which is universal in nature. Programmes run by institutions such as INCEIF, IIUM, IIU Islamabad, IRTI are complementing each other in producing well-balanced and competent manpower for the Islamic financial services industry. Strong government support, effective regulatory agencies, good corporate governance are among the necessary prerequisites. The marriage between the industry and the academia should take the leadership role. We have at the end of the paper proposed a practical action plan. We conclude with a strong call for immediate action to leverage our richly endowed resources so that the Islamic financial services industry could once again lead the world and not remain as a follower.

The paper "A proposed framework for human capital development in the Islamic financial services industry" presented at Knowledge Economy and Management Congress, Istanbul, Turkey.

This paper is aimed to examine the impact of bail-out policy carried out following the financial crisis which hit the Malaysian economy some years ago. Using panel estimation methods, this study tries to analyze the relationship between firms‟ investments and their cash flows before and after the crisis period. Theoretically, the relationship becomes tight due to the crisis. This tight relationship indicates the existence of severe financial constraints faced by existing firms. Such relationship is on the contrast to the loose relationship prior the crisis when the financial market was liberalized through various deregulations including the interest rates deregulation. However, to combat the crisis Malaysia carried out a variety of counter-crisis measures. The measures are packaged under the bail-out policy implementation. If the bail-out policy was a success, it can be measured through the easiness of financial constraints the firms faced. Using annual financial data of unbalanced panel of 1988-2005, the results found are in favor of the bail-out policy.

The present paper comparatively evaluates the credit channel of monetary transmission process of Islamic banks and conventional banks by focusing on their lending/financing behaviour in responses to monetary policy shocks as well as other shocks. Adopting structural vector autoregression (SVAR) specification, we validate the significant responses of both conventional bank credit and Islamic bank financing to monetary policy shocks. However, the dynamic behaviour of Islamic banks following monetary policy shocks as well as other shocks tends to be different. Our analysis indicates that the Islamic bank financing tends to respond immediately while the conventional bank credit exhibits delayed responses to interest rate hikes. These results are generally robust to alternative specifications of the SVAR.

Technology startups (TSs) are critical to develop economic capacity, support innovation and stimulate entrepreneurial spirit In a nation. As TSs embark on innovative and disruptive journeys, they face their biggest challenge: financing. This study aims to examine the determinants of financing among TSs in Malaysia while critically examining the role of Islamic Finance. The study adopts a triangulation methodological approach, which consists of questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. It focuses on Malaysian technology startups, entrepreneurs and their financing needs mainly at two stages: the early stage and the later stage. The study examines the following dependent variables as financing determinants: Entrepreneurs' Profiles (EP), Ethnic Culture (EC), innovation (IN) and Government Interventions (GI). It also examines the role of Islamic Finance among TSs. Binary regression analysis was used to analyse the data collected from the questionnaire survey, respectively grounded theory was employed to analyse interview survey data ...

This article empirically investigates the presence of financial constraints in the Malaysian capital market. The existence of financial constraints gives firm less access to external funds to finance their investment activities. Therefore, the constrained firm has to rely on internal sources of financing. The severity of financial constraints is relatively different according to firm size. Hence, the sample is divided into large and small firm subsamples. Using the Q model of investment, the results show that financial constraints are present in the Malaysian market using the full sample. The subsample results however show that large firms are not financially constrained. On the other hand, the smaller firms are facing the constraints in their investment decisions.

This paper investigates the presence of financial constraints among firms in Malaysia using firm level panel data analysis. The empirical results based on panel GMM demonstrate that financial constraints are present in the market, which indicate that the firms are unable to access to external forms of financing. In addition, the presence also signifies the presence of asymmetric information problem between the firm and its financer. Thus, the neoclassical investment theory which based on assumption of complete information such that only factor prices and technology determine firm’s desired capital stock is simply rejected. Eventually, their investments are much affected by fluctuations in their cash flows or retained earnings.

This paper aims to identify the best indicator in forecasting inflation in Malaysia. In methodology, the study constructs a simple forecasting model that incorporates the indicator/variable using the vector error correction (VECM) model of quasi-tradable inflation index and selected indicators: commodity prices, financial indicators and economic activities. For each indicator, the forecasting horizon used is 24 months and the VECM model is applied for seven sample windows over sample periods starting with the first month of 1980 and ending with the 12th month of every 2 years from 1992 to 2004. The degree of independence of each indicator from inflation is tested by analyzing the variance decomposition of each indicator and Granger causality between each indicator and inflation. We propose that a simple model using an aggregation of indices improves the accuracy of inflation forecasts. The results support our hypothesis.

Mention any developed nation like the United States or Japan, and one thing comes to mind as the reason for their success: research. Fuelled by research in various areas, these developed nations have progressed not only materialistically but also holistically. “Research is what brings these nations to where they are. Even today with many Americans not as interested in hard sciences, the government is still focused on getting people from everywhere around the world to lead this sector to support the government initiatives,” says Dr. Mohd-Pisal Zainal, Head of Research and Publication at The Global University of Islamic Finance (INCEIF).

This study examines factors that influence the acceptance of Internet banking among Malay and Chinese ethnic group in Malaysia using the theory of planned behavior. Respondents of this study were final year business students and MBAs in four public universities in Malaysia. Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed using multiple regressions. For both ethnic groups, the results show that attitude and subjective norm both have significant effect on the intention to use Internet banking. Interestingly, the effect of perceived behavioral control on the intention to use Internet banking was significant on the Malay ethnic group but not on the Chinese ethnic group. Practical implications were proposed.

The subprime crisis that peaked in 2008 has pushed the world economy into the deepest recession since the end of World War II. As doubts mount over the proper functioning of the conventional banking and finance industry during the crisis, growing attention is being given to Islamic banking and finance. Headed by Iran, Saudi Arabi, and Malaysia, Islamic finance has penetrated more than 65 countries around the globe. By the end of 2013, Islamic financial assets were estimated to be around US$1.3 trillion to US$1.5 trillion. Although Islamic assets are roughly less than 1 percent of global financial assets, their rapid growth, especially in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and their superior performance during the crisis have led many to believe that Islamic finance is a viable alternative. The rapid growth of the Islamic finance can be seen in various regions of the world. To provide perspective and an overview of the Islamic finance industry, key developments of the industry for various regions are highlighted in this introduction.

This study is an initial attempt at investigating the extent to which portfolio diversification benefits at different investment horizons are available to a Turkish investor from investment in MENA countries exposed to the Arab spring based on MGARCH-DCC and Wavelet techniques on daily data spanning from 2005 to 2015. The findings tend to suggest that the Turkish investors may not benefit from investment in Egypt for almost all investment horizons but may have moderate benefits from Lebanon up to the investment horizons of 32 - 64 days and longer. However, Turkish investors may benefit from Oman excepting the longer investment horizons. In the long run all stock holding periods exceeding 32 days have minimal benefits for portfolio diversification.

The 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis affected the balance sheets of many Malaysian firms, which increased the financial constraints on such firms. To counter the impacts, the Malaysian government carried out various directed policy measures known collectively as the bail-out policy. The present paper examines the success of the policy to reduce the financial constraints. The present paper uses panel estimation methods to analyze the relationship between firms’ investments and their cash flows. The sample of study is split into two subsamples, consisting of the periods before and after the financial crisis, respectively. The success of the policy is measured based upon the easing of financial constraints faced by Malaysian firms. Using annual financial data, consisting of unbalanced panel from the period of 1988 to 2005, the results found favour the bail-out policy. This finding indicates the success of the bail-out policy to reduce the severity of financial constraints.