The dual-banking system in Malaysia is expected to put Islamic banks at a disadvantage due to the latter's over-dependency on fixed rate asset financing such as al-bay' bithaman qjil and murabuhah. When interest rates are rising, rational product choice among non-Muslim customers is expected to produce a shifting effect that may frustrate deposit mobilization and at the same time able deplete an Islamic bank's earnings. The shifting effect occurs when NMC either transfer deposits from Islamic banks to conventional banks, or, in a period of declining interest rates, opt for loans rather than for deferred sale financing. These shifts occur solely due to pecuniary incentives sought by NMC as the suppliers of deposits or demanders of funds. During an economic slowdown normally accompanied by falling interest rates, the shifting effect is expected to increase idle balances as the demand for fixed rate asset financing declines. Thus, in the choice of banking products, it is argued that NMCs will be the main beneficiaries of the dual-banking system since they are open to more options than the Muslim customers (MC). Consistent with these expectations, we find that profit margins of Bank Islam Malaysia suffered a decline between the 1996-1997 period of rising interest rates while interest margins of conventional banks showed a rising trend.

This study aims to portray the ethical disposition of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) globally by investigating the ethical gap identified in the empirical literature to date. Two methods of analysis used in this study are content analysis and ratio analysis. While the former was conducted to identify the main themes of empirical studies and to gauge the gap between theory and practice of ethical principles and business practice in the Islamic banking and financial industry, the latter quantified the intensity of the gap identified. The findings indicate that global ethical practices were found to be above medial, and the South East Asian region stood out with a relatively better performance along with the subpar performance of the African region. Among the ethical parameters, the praxis of marketing ethics was found to be distinctly aligned with the principles, and the organizational ethical decision-making behaviour was held to be least harmonized with the norms. The findings of this study help researchers and regulators to better understand the issues and provide practical solutions to address the shortfalls of ethics in Islamic finance in practice. In spite of the vast literature, comprehension of the overarching ethical standing of IFIs is still equivocal. This study contributes to the growing literature of ethical and/or Islamic finance primarily in two ways. Firstly, it provides a comprehensive depiction of the ethical standings of the IFIs all around the globe, which can be treated as a guiding document for regulators and industry practitioners to better understand the issues and provide practical solutions to address the shortfalls of ethics in Islamic finance in practice. Secondly, it helps researchers identify research gaps and provides a systematic direction for future studies in the area of ethics in Islamic finance.

Islamic banks (“IB”) are predominant institutions of Islamic Finance (“IF”) worldwide. Consumers are key stakeholders in IBs. The central objective of this research is to study consumer financial protection (“CFP”) in IBs. The presence of conduct risk (“CR”) in the form of reputational damage, monetary awards, costs and fines, emanating from grievances, claims and disputes between IBs and their consumers is indicated as resulting from laxity in CFP. As with conventional banks (“CB”), lax CFP in IBs results in CR due to various forms of misconduct, whether intentional, negligent or inadvertent. However, in IBs, lax CFP may also result in CR due to “tensions” in Shari'ah governance (“SG”) that may have nexus to CFP. That conundrum may lead to Shari'ah risk (“SR”) and Shari'ah non-compliance risk (“SNCR”). Statistical analysis and modeling of CFP key indicators is therefore instrumental in examining the relationships. Exploratory factor analysis (“EFA”), confirmatory factor analysis (“CFA”) and covariance-based structural equation modeling (“CB-SEM”) on consumer-facing survey instrument responses (key measurement CFP variables) was conducted. The resulting empirical evidence indicates that latent and key measurement CFP variables hypothesised by multinational banking institutions have a statistically significant impact on CFP in IBs. taxonomy of civil court rulings involving IBs and Shari'ah-compliant contracts for the period 2011-2018 using a qualitative legal document review methodology, limited in scope to those civil case rulings and decisions resulting in money awards, damages, asset impairment, costs and significant exposure, was conducted. A literature review of pre-2011 and post-2018 civil cases involving IBs and regulatory actions was also conducted, in search of indicia of CR. Recent Bank Negara Malaysia (“BNM”) enforcement actions involving CFP issues were reviewed and annotated. Islamic banking disputes lodged with the Ombudsman of Financial Services (“OFS”) and the related awards for the calendar years 2014-2018 were qualitatively reviewed in search of further indicia of CR in IBs. Results indicate that taken together, these civil court rulings, enforcement actions and alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) actions from OFS form compelling evidence of the persistent presence of CR in IBs. Moreover, EFA and CFA on consumer-facing survey instrument responses statistically buttress the conclusion that latent and key CR measurement variables trigger grievances, disputes and claims against IBs.

The deposits level of Indonesian commercial banks during the COVID-19 pandemic has surged, meanwhile, the overall country's economic performance and business activities were slowed down and the interest rates were cut down by the Central Bank of Indonesia. This paper investigates factors determining the deposit growth in Indonesia. It also examines the distribution of the deposit growth into Wadi ah- deposits and Mudarabah depositors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using monthly data from August 2019 to January 2022, the study found that factors such as Uncertainty about the future (UC), Unemployment (UN), Economic Slowdown (ES), and Interest Rate (IN) were significant to the growth of deposits while not Consumption (C). The sample t-test found that there is no shift in Islamic banking products from safekeeping (Wadiah) to partnership (Mudharabah). During COVID-19 pandemic where the market undergonea period of financial anxieties, people hold money, that is save money for precautionary purposes against future mishaps like a prolonged Covid-19 pandemic. Banks are expected to make more loans from the increased savings which will complement Central banking countercyclical policy to stimulate the economy through various policies such as reducing the statutory reserve requirement, liquidity coverage ratio and capital conservation buffer.

The aim of this research is to examine the issues and challenges of the Islamic home financing market Afghanistan as the country is facing substantial housing shortage due to its growing population and unavailability of land in the major cities where unclear land titles, lack of legal and regulatory frameworks, absence of national housing policies and foreclosure laws constituted major barriers. These problems are compounded with the lack of supply of housing finance and people's low financial capacity to take bank loans and financing. This study first examines the current Islamic banking legal and regulatory framework ...

This paper studies the factors which determine the level of activity of foreign banks in the Malaysian economy, in the contect of the policy framework laid down by the central bank of the country. The authors conclude that, with trade financing as the the main activity of foreign banks, they did not benefit much from the growth of the economy per se. What has actually happened is that the business growth of domestic banks has been at the expense of foreign banks.

This imbalance nature of Islamic bank's performance is of great concern, which motivates this research, which is to examine the determinants of the imbalance of the imbalance nature of Islamic banks' performance in Sudan. In doing so, it seeks to fulfill three main objectives, namely examining the imbalance nature of Islamic banks' performance in Sudan, examining the awareness of the policy makers and the Islamic banks' managers to this imbalance nature, and to investigate its determinants ...

The fundamental principle of true sale is based on the ownership state of the subject matter of sale where the selling party must own the asset legally and keep full ownership of the goods before making the sale. In the riba-free system, the Islamic bank assumes a role of a trading entity. It undertakes a trading position and exposes itself to business risk as the asset is booked on its balance sheet. It follows that the profit rate it charges the customer will reflect an additional risk-premium to account for the business risk exposure ...

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the rise of Shariah non-compliance risk that can bring Islamic banks to succumb to monetary loss. The study is also intent to propose a measurement of Shariah non-compliance risk via accounting technique. Subsequently, the study has also entails to identify the causal modelling of the Shariah non-compliance risk ...

This research aims to examine the relationship between Islamic banks' profitability and shareholders' value with the market structures, ownership structures, and financial risk factors, and to test for any differences in these performances between the Islamic and conventional banks. The impacts of both market and ownership structures and financial risks of banking performance is recognized globally and critical for the banking industry. The market and ownership structures are considered pertinent as they indicate competitive environment in which banks can lower costs, extend access to finance, and build effectiveness while garnering impacts of the financial risks will promote financial stability. In addressing the research questions and research objectives this study utilized balanced panel data of a sample of 60 commercial banks out of which, 17 are Islamic banks from the GCC countries during 2003-2015 periods. Four models were formula ted and estimated for each performance indicator using the PCSEs technique based on the results of diagnostic tests ...

This study aims to examine the decision-making behaviour of Islamic banking practitioners of the United Arab Emirates with special reference to the operational line heterogeneity by employing factors that are religious in nature such as intellect, satanic force and divine knowledge as encapsulated in alGhazali's ethical philosophy. A total of 337 samples were collected from the Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates using a purposive sampling technique, and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using Partial least square Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. The empirical findings reveal that the dedicated use of intellect in making decisions related to ethical issues where desires and emotions tend to overwhelm reason and human choices. While divine knowledge is found ineffective guidance of the intellect, the element of satanic force is found significantly impacting decision-making. As the lack of religious consciousness is evident among respondents, higher exposure to operational risk is expected. These findings were found identical across the Islamic banking practitioners in different lines of operations. Findings of the study highly suggest respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify the capacity-building programs on the foundation of faith which includes Islamic thought and worldview, to enhance the corporate ethical decision-making. Moreover, equal importance should be given to all the banking practitioners regardless of line of business operations. With undue emphasis is given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in the Islamic banking and finance industry, less has been attempted to explore its ethical dimension (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters that leave a relatively large gap to address prevailing unethical practices in Islamic finance institutions. Findings from this study can be useful as a warning to the Islamic banking firms to enhance the sense of God-fearing and improve existing measures in the organisation in mitigating operational risks that may arise from people or system and consequently ensure the smooth governance of the Islamic banks.

Sustainable finance involves the practice of integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into account in making investment decisions. But little is known about the ESG integration among Islamic banks in Malaysia which leave a gap for this study to investigate. From a survey of 7 respondents from 7 different Islamic banks respondents from both full-fledge and subsidiary Islam banks in Malaysia, it is found that sustainability adoption among Islamic banks in Malaysia is commendable and is at par with the overall financial market but there is still room for improvement on the operations and the oversight functions. The level of awareness is encouraging but Islamic banks are not without their challenges when it comes to implementing ESG within the organisation. In incorporating ESG risk factor into overall Islamic banks' cost of financing, Islamic banks, as well as the conventional counterpart, at this juncture, are taking the soft approach instead of punitive approach by increasing the cost of financing and pricing to the customer through the sustainability risk premium. It is found that the current adoption of sustainability in Malaysia is regulatory driven. Most of the sustainability practices and frameworks in Islamic banks are solely following the directions from BNM guideline and framework. Islamic banks need to take a step back and relook at sustainability as an opportunity to bring Islamic finance to the table to position Islamic banking as the major proponent in environment, social and governance dimension.

While ample emphasis has been given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in Islamic banking and finance, relatively little has been attempted to explore its ethical dimensions (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters. Further, Shariah compliance has been product centric rather than people-centric. This is evident in view of recurring unprincipled events reported in the Islamic banking and finance industry where its ethical standing is under public scrutiny. Given this undesirable circumstance, this study intends to examine the factors determining decision-making behaviour in Islamic banking related to ethical issues as defined by the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model as well as factors that are religious in nature as encapsulated in Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy. The first objective of the study is to develop a "synthesized conceptual model", which incorporates selected aspects of Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy into the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model. The second objective of the study, which is an empirical examination of factors influencing 'decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues' is conducted based on newly 'synthesized conceptual model'.

In past thirty years, Islamic banking has established itself in the global market as an alternative method of financing to interest-based financing. Most of Islamic financing products are formulated on debt financing contract such as murabaha and tawaruq contracts where elements of interest, ambiguities, gambling and impure commodities are duly avoided. While these contracts have complied with the fundamental principle of the Shariah, less attention is accorded to the pricing aspect of the contract especially in the setting of finance charges, namely profit rates on the facilities. While regulatory murabaha Shariah parameter defined the selling price of murabaha as a sum of the cost of purchase and profit margin, less study is attempted on the latter. Claims of exorbitant profits charged by Islamic banks have been voiced by various parties including consumer associations are not without basis. The first objective of this study is to examine and confirm the claims made by the consumer groups. This study has confirmed that the complaints have been true where Islamic banks were found to use the monthly profit rate compounding system as well as the flat rate method which have contributed to the questionable increase in profits earned by the banks. In the former, the effective profit rates (EPF) are found always higher than the quoted profit rates (QPR) while in the latter the use of flat rate method (FRM) over the reducing balance method (RBM) where both of these practices have increase banking profits at the detriment of customers. This study considers this case as an ethical issue as no clear guideline on this matter is accorded by the regulator in the murabaha Shariah parameter.

After the global financial crisis, liquidity management has been a great concern to both Islamic and conventional banks, as liquidity management is linked to the bank's profitability and overall sustainability of financial system. While shortage of liquidity has taken centre-stage in Basel 3 reforms as a consequence of the US subprime loan crises, the problem of excess liquidity in Islamic banking remains unresolved in view of the lack of product offerings like medium term sukuk that should give relatively higher yields than short-term Islamic securities. Evidently, few literatures have examined the problem of excess liquidity in Islamic banks and no empirical evidence on the factors leading to the excess liquidity has been found. To shed light on that gap, this paper endeavours to find the catalysts of excess liquidity in Islamic banks using fixed effect and random effect model. The sample is taken form Malaysia considering homogeneous sample. Interestingly enough, both Islamic banks as well as conventional banks have been found to hold excess liquid assets. The availability and issuance of short-term Islamic securities and long-term sukuk, which was focused variable in this study has been found significantly affecting the excess liquidity in Islamic finance. Hence, based on this findings, the availability of short-term Islamic securities and long term sukuk have saved Islamic banks from inefficiency arising from low asset utilization and hence lower profitability. To increase efficient use of assets, it is recommended that Islamic financial institutions and Shariah compliant companies be more diligent in offering medium term sukuks.

The objective of this study is to examine growth and development of the investment account funds in Islamic banks in Malaysia as well as to investigate the channel of distribution of investment account products by financial advisor market. furthermore, this study is firsthand research that related to the investment account advisory services in Islamic banks. Therefore, two ways of conducting this study to meet the objective by using desktop research and interview method. First, the study used the desktop research technique to examine the size and growth of investment account in Islamic banks in Malaysia. Ten Islamic banks have been chosen to compare the four elements of investment account, namely the number of investment account, the underlying assets, rate of return and profit-sharing ratio, and customer segmentations. Secondly, the study interview financial advisor in five chosen Islamic banks. The study found that more than 50% of financial advisor agreed on the idea of establishing new investment account advisory services in Islamic banks. The findings also indicated that there are some issues related to the slow growth of investment account for over five years. Perhaps by implementing these advisory services in Islamic banks can boost the distribution of investment accounts and investment account platform (IAP) products by utilizing the financial knowledge of financial advisor in Malaysia today.

The first objective of this study aims to investigate the current status of financial inclusion and the second research objective aims to study the determinants of populations' refusal or inability to participate in banking system. The qualitative approach is used for the first research objective whereas quantitative technique is used to address the second objective. For the purpose of quantitative approach, primary data was collected through survey questionnaires from financially excluded population (individuals without a bank account or having only salary account) in Kabul province to answer the hypotheses outlined for this study. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling to determine the factors that contributed to financial exclusion ...

The purpose of this paper is to use Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model to examine the impact of situational factors on decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners. A total of 262 samples are collected from Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and data analysis is conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM) with a confirmatory approach. The empirical findings indicate that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced in the process of interacting with persons who are part of the organisation, and these influences are determined by the intra-organisational distance and legitimate authority between the individuals and the focal person. Further, it is also empirically verified that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced by the presence and/or absence of the opportunity factors such as corporate policies, professional codes of ethics and rewards/punishment system that prevails in the organisation.

Marketing takaful products does not imply exploiting the religious factor alone. Equally important is the distribution channel. As a marketing tool the agency system is vital. Insurance agents who sell policies are not employees to the insurance operators. They work on commission basis and thus, motivated by the volume of sales made. By using agents, insurance companies can cut overhead costs and help expand markets without using or setting up new costly subsidiaries. The first Takaful operator in Malaysia, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad (STMB) did not use the agency system. STMB says that it is against the Shari[ah law to apply the contract of Agency (al Wakalah) in the takaful business. This has a lot to do with the ikhtilaf on whether the takaful operator (Mudarib) can use part of the capital provided by the participants (Rab al mal) to pay for management expenses. On the contrary, the second takaful operator, Takaful Nasional Sendirian Berhad (TNSB), applies the agency system since it holds a different view of the wakalah contract. This study looks at how the differences in juristic views have impacted performance of both takaful operators. The study found that TNSB performed better than STMB. In this sense, the Wakalah system was able to generate greater benefits (manfaat) to the takaful operators while not causing harm (madarrah) to customers. It is therefore crucial for STMB to review their policy on al wakalah and embrace the agency system to improve performance.

This paper explores the Islamic banking business in Malaysia since its beginning in 1983. The Islamic banking sector has achieved its target of 20% market share in assets and deposits in 2010. To boost the industry's competitiveness and efficiency, the demands of the market forces will have to be delicately balanced with the dictates of the Shari'ah. The search for niche Islamic banking products warrants enhancements in the current regulatory, legal, and fiscal infrastructure for Islamic banking, without which these products cannot be a viable alternative to the conventional ones. While the prevailing infrastructure is conducive to Islamic banking products that hold similar characteristics with interest-bearing loans, Shari'ah compliance can be a futile exercise when the purpose of the law (maqasid al-shari'ah) is overlooked, for there is much more to Islamic banking than the elimination of interest.

Much of the modern Islamic banking business was set up in the 1970s, but discussions had been around much earlier, predominantly among Islamic economists. For this reason, it is not surprising to see the concern for economic justice and equity from profit-loss sharing (PLS) arrangements such as mudaraba and musharakah against the evils of riba (usury/interest) which is blamed for the economic injustices that people face. Riba is said to favour the rich class over the working class as the former holds greater command of income and assets. Small businesses and startups stand no chance to compete with big companies for bank loans. In a way, PLS can be the way out to introduce justice into the banking business. Early Muslim economists such as Mahmoud Abu Saud, Nejatullah Sidiqqi, Umar Chapra, Zubir Hasan and Abbas Mirakhor followed by the younger cadres at the Islamic development bank (IDB) have contributed tremendously to the field with much stress being placed on the Islamic economic objectives, which is obvious. The drive for economic development and stability in Muslim countries has produced significant debate on Islamic fiscal and monetary policies based on the zakat system and other redistributive instruments like waqf and sadaqah.