This case was developed based on a real-life experience dealing with an Islamic car financing contract (i.e. Al-ljarah Thumma Al-Bay |AITAB] contract - Sale and Leaseback) between a Malaysian Islamic Financial Institution and their customer. It is well recognised that AITAB is governed by the Malaysian Hire Purchase Act 1967, that oversees conventional (nor Islamic) car financing, yet it is used for both financing modes. The contract requires clarification on the following: understanding of the nature of the contract used and the relevant transactions involved; revenue recognition (current and future); capitalisation of relevant costs in the asset's value; fair value of leased asset; recognition of financial assets and liabilities; and disclosure requirements from the bank and customer perspectives. Users of the case are assumed to be familiar with the various regulatory requirements and theoretical foundation of the "Accounting for Islamic Financial Transactions" from IFRS/MFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards/Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards) and the AAOFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) reporting perspectives.

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies void of any support from regulatory body that is currently in vogue as a medium of exchange and an investment security. This paper examines the accounting treatment for cryptocurrency from the perspective of IFRS and AAOIFI accounting standards and propose actions to standard setters on the best way to treat the Crypto transactions in accounting reports. A proper accounting treatment will allow for a fair reporting of crypto related transactions and facilitate users of financial statements to make objective assessment of this new invention. A content analysis was conducted to review all major accounting standards issued by accounting standards setting bodies for possible accounting treatment for cryptocurrencies. To better understand the issue in practice, an analysis of accounting treatment of cryptocurrencies by 2 companies also was conducted. This study found that there is no suitable accounting standard that could objectively be applied for cryptocurrencies. For example, from the perspective of the current accounting standards, cryptocurrencies match the definition of inventory if it is used as a commodity for broker-trader and intangible asset for others respectively. It is suggested that there an urgent need for the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to comprehensively develop accounting standard for cryptocurrency, specifically to develop a specific category for this type of assets to allow a standard treatment for cryptocurrency and fill the gap in the IFRS.

The Oxford Dictionary define 'corporate' is an adjective belonging to a corporation, while 'governance'derives from the Latin gubernare, meaning 'to steer', which implies that corporate governance involves the function of direction rather than control. Therefore, corporate governance is a function of governing a corporation.

Islamic financial instruments differ from conventional instruments because of their risk sharing and justice factor. Talking specifically about fund raising instruments, Sukuks are the most vital and demanded instrument. Despite of its risk sharing and equity feature, Sukuk defaults yet happened which eventually raised several questions on the viability of these instruments and their treatment in a distressed situation that provides us with another avenue of research on these instruments. In this paper, we analysed five major Sukuk defaults that happened recently in the aftermath of the 2007 global financial crisis ...

The corporate name is the identity and pride of a corporate entity. A name change is an important corporate event and done only if the benefits out weights the costs. This study attempts to investigate whether a corporate name change has a wealth effect on the company's shareholders. It investigates the wealth effects of name change announcement concurrent with announcement of reorganisation and restructuring of the firm. Event study methodology was employed to examine the above issues with respect to failed and non-failed firms for the period from 1980 to 1996 ...

This chapter provides discussion on a study that investigates the perceptions on shariah governance practices among Malaysian Islamic financial institutions. The chapter explores the effectiveness of implementation of Shariah Governance Framework among Malaysian IFIs with the focus on their level of commitment, the challenges and suggestions to further improve the effectiveness of implementation of this framework. The system of corporate control, effective and efficient governance that is consistent with shariah guidance has been an important agenda for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) since the existence ofIslamic Finance in Malaysia. This is especially important in light of rapid growth in Islamic Finance industry not only in Malaysia but globally. The well-functioning Islamic finance industry can only be sustained if there is good corporate governance practice by IFIs that comply with the shariah guidance.

Islamic banking and Finance (IBF) provides products and services guided by the Shariah. Therefore, they are supposed to be different from their conventional counterparts. Islamic deposit rates should be different from conventional deposit rates. Islamic banking profit rates are supposedly less risky due to risksharing attribute embedded in their structure as compared to the conventional banking interest rates on similar-risk investment products. This paper addresses this concern by examining the differences in the monthly fixed deposit rates of conventional and investment deposit rates of Islamic banks and finance companies in Malaysia for the period from January 1994 to December 2012 and determines the causality relationship between profit rates and interest rates on these investments. The findings suggest that profit rates of Islamic banks are significantly linked with interest rates of conventional banks.

This paper examines the perception of bankers on contribution of audit committees towards external auditor independence in public listed companies. All Malaysian public listed companies are required to establish an audit committee as a measure to improve on the internal control mechanism that can help improve the corporate governance practices of firms. Postal questionnaires and interview surveys were used to solicit the perception and views of loan officers. The majority of the respondents believe that auditor independence is preserved with the presence of an actively functioning audit committee. This implies favourably on the corporate governance

The efforts towards better corporate governance practices of firms in the Malaysian capital market were started by the Securities Commission (SC) as early as 1996 in three-phased shift disclosure-based regulations (DBR). During Phase 1 (1996-1999: Flexible/Hybrid Merit Based Regime), the emphasis was to regulate on disclosure, due diligence and corporate governance. Phase 2 (January 2000: Partial DBR) still focused on corporate disclosure, due diligence and corporate governance, but included focus on promotion of accountability and self-regulation. In Phase 3 (2001 onwards: Full DBR) the SC enforced high standards of disclosure, due diligence and corporate governance as well as exercise of self regulation and responsible conduct ...

This study examines the disclosures contained in Audit Committee Reports (ACRs) and the level of compliance of current practices with the amended Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange listing requirements after the adoption of various recommendations made by the High-Level of Finance Committee on Corporate Governance and the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) in 1999 and 2000 respectively. All firms listed on the KLSE's main and second board, and MESDAQ counters were sampled. Consistent with the literature in developed markets, the findings reveal that very few companies provide more than what is expected by the ACRs in their listing requirements. Further, companies in finance, technology and IPC counters, and companies on the main board counter have greater initiative to provide value added (or termed as 'non-boiler plate') statements to information users.

Good corporate governance practices are a trademark of developed capital markets. Stringent regulation of capital markets is not a consistent way to mitigate financial mishaps in developed market environment. Malaysian government has adopted a market deregulation approach, and delegated the responsibilities of ensuring a fair and proper functioning of financial institutions to the Securities Commission. The commission is required to issue listing requirements for public and listed companies to establish audit committees. This paper discusses the Malaysian audit committees' duties from the legal perspective. The discussion covers audit committee's fiduciary duties, duty to be diligent, duty of care and skill and statutory duties which are framed in order to make the functioning of Audit committees more effective.

Evidence of audit failures documented worldwide have led to major criticism of the auditing professions' independence and exposed its implication on shareholders and stakeholders' interests. External auditors are expected not only be independent but more importantly must be seen to be independent when examining and attesting clients' financial statements. Auditors are expected to decide on reporting strategies without any influence from their clients' management.

Failures of major financial institutions globally that have supposedly audited has led to major criticism of the auditing profession. The collapse of many large companies and the demise of one of the major auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, have damaged the credibility of financial statements and undermined the reputation of audit profession. Among the many explanations for these failures (like investors’ irrational exuberance, infectious greed, and foolishness; the bursting of the bubble; the impoverished morality of CEOs), the tendency of management to cook the books; the failure of the gatekeepers; and the ambiguities in application of financial reporting standards, which have encouraged auditors to be creative and apply their accounting gimmicks, are directly related to the auditing profession.

This paper reports evidence of a banking liquidity impact on stock prices in the three Asean countries. Banking liquidity impacts suggested by Friedman is yet to be fully investigated nor verified despite several attempts. If improved liquidity of banks leads to credit expansion, which in turn leads to more positive net present value projects undertaken by firms, earnings of the latter must go up, and hence the share prices should rise. This link is worth an investigation. According to an influential of the US stock market, up to 52% of share returns are due to changes in the macro economy. Using a 3-equation structural model as well as employing corrections for cross-section dependence, we examine the link between money supply, liquidity and stock prices over 2001:4Q and 2012:2Q in three developing countries. It is found money supply changes lead to a positive liquidity effect and banking liquidity impacts share market prices positively. These findings are new and in support of Friedman's liquidity proposition, and also constitute evidence of a banking liquidity having a positive effect on asset prices.

Post millennium period could be considered as a rejuvenation period for both issues of corporate governance and firm's financial reporting quality (FRQ) in the Asian region. Series of corporate and economic events pre and post millennium period had effectively led these intermingling issues to gain prominence in the academic and public policy debate. Primarily, academic debate has suggested that governance is an effective tool through which FRQ could be ensured (Imhoff, 2003; Rezaee, 2003).

Capital adequacy plays an important role in determining banking activities. A bank must hold a minimum level of capital to ensure sufficient funds to buffer against unexpected losses or adverse shocks. This study analyzes and compares Islamic and conventional banks in 14 Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries from 1999 to 2009. The empirical evidence suggests that capital requirements have a significant impact on the deposit and lending behaviors of the 52 Islamic banks (IBs) and 186 conventional banks (CBs) in the sample. There is a strong positive relationship between capital requirements and deposit and loan growth for both IBs and CBs

An effective system of rules, practices and processes by which Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) are directed and controlled to ensure their business operations are Shariah-compliant, which has important implications on their reputation, Shariah governance and the future growth of Islamic finance industry. Sixteen Chairmen of the Shariah Committees of Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia were interviewed on the challenges faced in carrying out their responsibilities and theri views on effective Shariah Committees. This paper summarizes the various challenges faced by Shariah committees in Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia.

Over the last decade, the accounting profession has witnessed the commercialisation of audit firms through offering of non-audit services (i.e. business consultancy services) to their audit client. Regulators and stakeholders have placed a great concern on the potential threat of commercialization of audit services on perceived auditor independence. This study reports the effects of the joint provision of audit and non-audit services (NAS) and the type of NAS on perceived auditor independence. The main findings suggest that auditor independence is perceived to be compromised when audit and NAS were jointly offered by audit firms. However, when there exist proper segregation of duties in audit firms that offer both services, the perception changed.

This paper aims to assess the ethical disclosure of Islamic banks (IBs) under different accounting regimes and to ascertain whether the adoption of an Islamic accounting standards (Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions [AAOIFI]) promotes the practice of ethical disclosure. An ethical identity disclosure index was developed to serve as a benchmark to assess the level of the communicated ethical identity disclosure (CEID) of 47 IBs over 18 countries using annual reports. The findings suggest that, overall, there is poor ethical disclosure practices and even banks that had some initiatives towards disclosures had no proper reference to benchmark for effective implementation of ethical reporting standards and had no plans for ethical and socially responsible schemes. There was no evidence to suggest that IBs that adapted the religious-based accounting regime (AAOIFI) had better levels of ethical disclosure. Though poor practices of CEID are expected to increase reputational risks and the likelihood of loss of religious conscious customers and investors' confidence and therefore market share and performance in the long-term, the current practice does not concur with this expectation. Furthermore, since there is no evidence to support the notion that the adoption of AAOIFI standards would support greater initiatives towards level of ethical identity disclosures, a mandatory requirement for effective disclosure through enforcement of AAOIFI's financial reporting standards, specifically with regard to ethics and social and environmental commitment is needed.

This chapter provides new findings to accounting and finance literature, where, it compares the conceptual framework of both of the MASB- and the AAOIFI- in the context of financial reporting of Islamic financial institutions (IFls). The conceptual framework or some authors referred as "accounting constitution" set the tone for a consistent accounting standards and become a reference point for developing future standards for financial accounting and reporting (Barker et al., 2014; Abela et al., 2014; Holzmann & Munter, 2014 (Sutton et al., 2015; Gebhardt et aI., 2014; Norby, 1977; Gore & Zimmerman, 2007). In this context, more than 120 countries (including major players in Islamic finance like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and many others) are adopting IASB' financial reporting regime in financial reporting of IFIs, and only six countries like Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Sudan are employing the AAOIFI accounting standards ...

This paper aims to present comparison of conceptual framework published by the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) (fully converged with the standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). As the Islamic finance industry evolved, some scholars proposed that the Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) should have different accounting standards to serve their need to report the unique financial information needs. The research is motivated by the introduction of accounting standards by the AAOIFI to fulfill the financial reporting needs of Islamic finance industry that offered Shariah complied products and services. AAOIFI divided the objective of financial reporting into two parts, namely, objective of financial accounting and objective of financial reports. However, only a limited number of countries adapted the AAOIFI accounting standards as mandatory for their IFIs. The other 120 countries apply standards issued by IASB for their IFIs. For MASB, the objective of financial reporting is to generate useful financial information for creditors and investors. An analysis of the accounting principles outlined in the conceptual framework of the MASB shows substantial replication of the AAOIFI's conceptual framework. In the Malaysian Islamic finance industry perspective, though the regulator requires the IFIs to apply the IFRS, yet it issued relevant regulations as a guide for IFIs financial reporting and to close the gap.