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

Due to the increasing efforts towards regional and global economic integration, the effects of "country specific" factors are becoming less important in managing domestic portfolio investments. Consequently the concept of diversification across economic sectors has received attention in literature. This paper analyzes the opportunity for diversification across different economic sectors for long-term investment using sectorial indices. The findings indicate high but unstable correlation of returns between indices. This implies that investment managers should account for potential movements in sector-specific and sub-sector-specific risks. The findings imply that investment in one or two sectors of the stock market face higher total risk than in the past due to the increasing "sector" effects on portfolio investment.

This article examines the value-added phenomenon of Malaysian horizontal merger and acquisition activities (M&A) in the long run for the period 1994–2010. In this regard, this article used economic value-added (EVA) approach and cost-efficiency approach (stochastic frontier analysis (SFA)) to investigate synergistic benefits. The findings suggest that bidder firms experience no significant improvement in operating and financial efficiencies in the long run. Specifically, the operating performance of bidder firms deteriorated after the merger exercise, whereas the target firms had no significant improvement in operating performance over the same period. In summary, the findings suggest no synergistic gains from horizontal mergers in Malaysia. These findings imply that the long-run performance of firms in the horizontal mergers or acquisitions is driven by other motives rather than synergistic gains.

This paper aims to investigate the differences in mean cost, revenue and profit efficiency scores of conventional versus Islamic banks. It also aims to examine the effect of size and age on cost, revenue and profit efficiency of the sampled banks. This study evaluates a cross-country level data compiled from the financial statements of 40 banks in 11 Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries over the period 1990-2005. The data were collected for each year available from the BankScope database. The DEA nonparametric efficiency approach originally developed by Farrell was applied to analyse the data. The findings suggest no significant differences between the overall efficiency of conventional and Islamic banks. However, it was noted that, on average, banks are more efficient in using their resources compared to their ability to generate revenues and profits. The average bank lost an opportunity to receive 27.9 percent more revenue, given the same amount of resources. Similarly, the average bank lost the opportunity to make 20.9 percent more profits utilising the same level of inputs. Clearly there is substantial room for improvement in cost minimisation and revenue and profit maximisation in both banking systems. The size and age factor did not significantly influence the efficiency scores in both banking streams. This research is substantially different from the prior work in this area in three main ways. First, it investigates cost, revenue, and profit efficiency, whereas previous studies focus on cost, profit, or cost and profit efficiency. Also, no previous studies have compared conventional and Islamic banks. Second, this study distinguishes differences among big versus small, and old versus new banks, which allows more detailed insights on the efficiency issue. Third, the age issue in Islamic banks has been addressed, so far undocumented.

Decomposition of yield curves is important for pricing of fixed income instruments, inflation management, and modeling term structure of interest rates. Therefore, this study investigates whether the long term profit rate of different classes of Sukuk (Islamic bond) is a viable predictor of future spot profit rates. Data on Malaysian Sukuk from 2001-2010 was used to estimate yield curves and forward rates. Regression findings suggest that the forward rate is a weak predictor of future spot profit rate, implying long term profit rates are not average of future spot rate s on long term Sukuk. The findings do not support the expectation hypothesis. However, comparison with securities of the same default risk, but with different maturities, reveals the presence of an-in-bulit support for term premium in the yield curves of corporate Sukuk. This finding is consistent with the Liquidity Preference Theory. We also find further support for Market Segmentation Theory as we find a humped shaped yield curve in the Sukuk market

In this chapter an attempt is made for the first time to assess the financial performance of Islamic banks and conventional banks by choosing a matched sample of banks to assess their financial performance across the world over a lenghty period. Islamic banking is based on replacing the pre-fixed-interest-based bank deposit-cum-lending activities with risk-sharing and profit-sharing principles advocated by Islam, which in turn appears to be consistent with the social norms of pre-modern societies prior to the rise of interest-based-fractioning banking in the last 200 years, which refers to the fractional-reserve banking from the close of the 18th century.

This paper aims to examine the productivity and spillover effect of Malaysian horizontal merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the long run. In terms of analytical tools, economic value added (EVA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are used. The results of this study reveal that M&As in the absence of antitrust laws could be driven by managerial self-interest to create market power instead of realizing synergistic gains. Also, in Malaysia, the non-merging rival firms have significantly higher productivity improvement than the control bidder firms, and therefore, this study has identified the spillover effect as a behavior of M&A reaction. This paper differs from previous studies in that it attempts not only to examine the real long-term gains of horizontal M&A activities in Malaysia but also the spillover effects of M&A activities on similar but non-merging firms.

This article focuses on the short- and long-term assets and liabilities gap and the determinants of net interest/profit margins of both conventional banks and Islamic banks in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries over the period from 1997 to 2010. The results show that both conventional and Islamic banks have negative short-term gaps and positive long-term gaps. These indicate that banks use short-term deposits and funding to finance long-term loans, advances and investments, taking into consideration refinancing and reinvestment risks. The findings also show that operating cost is a significant determinant of bank margins and important factor to improve quality of management in banks. Overall, the conventional banks have better quality of assets and liabilities with an optimum composition of profitable assets and low-costs liabilities. The low bank margins in conventional and Islamic banks indicate low volatility in financial markets and the growth of banking business.

It is well documented in developed economies that portfolio investment across national borders brings benefits of increasing returns and/or reducing risk. Dividing MENA stock markets into two main groups (oil producing and non-oil producing countries), this study examines the potential role of each group in providing diversification benefits for international investors. In addition, the behavior of the long and the short-run Efficient Frontiers (EFs) constructed by each of the sub-groups and the combined MENA markets is explored. Multi-objective international portfolio models are proposed under Mean-Variance and Mean-Lower Partial Moment frameworks, and the Multiple Fitness Function Genetic Algorithm (MFFGA) is used to find the EFs of optimal portfolios. The findings indicate that the stock markets of oil producing countries can be considered as a potential avenue for international portfolio diversification for investors not only from the same countries but also from the other MENA markets. It was also found that international portfolios constructed from the combination of MENA equity markets are more stable compared to the portfolios of sub-group markets. Further, the findings indicate that the behavior of short-term EFs in the MENA region cannot be predicted by the behavior of long-term EFs.

Prior research examining corporate governance issues across jurisdictional boundaries and market specificity (emerging and otherwise) have commonly adopted the functionalist approach of exploring governance implications towards specific economic phenomena covering among others, firm's performance and its reporting behaviour. These studies have utilized common research methods (often archival modeling) and theories (economic and management based) subscribing to the positivist paradigm in understanding specific research phenomena.