Journal Article

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.

The paper assesses the risk implications of rapid Islamic financing growth after the Global Financial crisis and whether financing - risk relations are more reflective of large Islamic banks. Employing a panel regression methodology and a sample of 72 Islamic banks from 14 countries over the period 2010-2019, our analysis indicates that Islamic financing growth does lead to credit risk deterioration up to two years ahead. We note further that Islamic banks are "too small to succeed" in that the risk effect of financing growth is more apparent for small Islamic banks. But, once an Islamic bank reaches a certain size threshold, it demonstrates ability to manage and mitigate credit risk arising from its financing activities. Based on these results, we conclude that Islamic banks need to be bigger.

We examine the impact of competition and portfolio diversification on banking stability for conventional and Islamic banks in Indonesia. We find that the Islamic banking sector is less stable, when compared to the conventional banking sector. Competition in the banking sector reduces stability, while diversification enhances it. We find that competition negatively impacts the Islamic banks, but diversification has no impact on these banks. An interesting finding is that competition and diversification complement each other in enhancing the stability of the Indonesian banking sector. These findings carry an important policy implication for the banking sector of Indonesia.

Market discipline is one of the main pillars of stability and resiliency in the banking system. The mechanism of market discipline primarily relies on the role of depositors who receive timely information and act accordingly through their respective accounts. In this study, we use generalized method of moments panel technique for 44 Islamic banks across different regions to research the presence of market discipline in the global Islamic banking system, focusing on the behaviour of the PSIA holders and their role in the governance of Islamic banks. These results have a significant policy implication in reviewing the framework governing the Islamic banks.

This study investigates the change in the productivity of banking industry during the period of 2000 to 2004. The data consists of a panel of 11 commercial banks in Malaysia namely Malayan Banking, Bumiputra-Commerce, Public Bank, RHB Bank, Hong Leong Berhad, EON Bank, Affin Bank, Southern Bank Berhad, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB), Ambank and Bank Muamalat. Productivity is measured by the Malmquist index, using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. The Malmquist productivity measures are decomposed into two components: efficiency change and technical change index. Efficiency change is again decomposed into pure efficiency and scale efficiency. Overall, the results show that Total Factor Productivity (TFP) has slightly increased for the whole industry in which efficiency change is found to be the most important source of productivity growth to Malaysia’s banking industry as compared to technical component that contributes a negative change to the overall TFP growth. In this case, the scale efficiency is found to be a more important source of efficiency change than pure efficiency component. This implies that the size does matter in improving bank efficiency. Negative growth of technical efficiency indicates a great potential for the industry to increase productivity through higher utilization of technology as well as technological knowledge dispersion. Continuous training programs to familiarize and improve technical expertise appear to offer better prospects for Malaysia’s banking industry to achieve greater TFP growth.

In this paper, we perform a non-linear assessment of Islamic rate - conventional rate relations for the case of Malaysia. Using monthly data covering the period January 1999 to November 2016, we find strong evidence supporting non-linear reactions of the Islamic investment rates to conventional rates in the long run and/or short-run for all matched maturities. More precisely, the Islamic investment rates exhibit faster upward movement (slower downward movement) in responses to conventional deposit rate increases (decreases). The asymmetric pricing behaviour of Islamic banks however tends to weaken as maturity lengthens. Accordingly, we infer that Islamic banks do not rigidly peg their investment deposit rates to conventional deposit rates as some have claimed in questioning the Islamicity of Islamic banks.

Despite having abundant literature blaming a faulty financial system and exuberant price expectations as the primary causes of housing bubbles, there is a lack of research that looks at the impact of house price instability on the economy. This study aims to fill this gap by thoroughly examining the connection between house prices and economic output, and the effect of house price volatility on economic stability. Drawing from long-spanning quarterly data from 17 OECD countries from 1970 to 2019, the study develops and tests economic growth and volatility models to uncover significant insights. The empirical results show that house price returns have a significant asymmetric impact on economic growth, with negative returns having twice the effect of positive ones. Moreover, the results indicate that house price volatility significantly contributes to economic instability. In light of these findings, the paper concludes with valuable policy recommendations to enhance the housing market and improve overall economic stability. This study provides a compelling argument for the importance of closely monitoring and regulating the real estate market in order to maintain a healthy and stable economy.

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.

Intellectual capital is imperative for Islamic banks given their unique characteristics in that they offer innovative Shariah-based solutions to the modern financial problems. This study therefore examined the influence of corporate governance on intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) practices of Islamic banks. Data from a sample of 33 Islamic banks for the period 2012 to 2018 were collected. A self-developed ICD checklist was used to measure the extent of IC information disclosed in the annual report. This paper also examines the relationship between ICD practices and several corporate governance components which includes board size, board meeting, board independence, board gender, board expertise, audit committee size, audit committee meeting, audit committee independence, audit committee gender and audit committee expertise. Our results revealed that having an effective corporate governance structure is essential, as it is able to influence the ICD practices of Islamic banks. However, instead of focusing on the role of the board, our paper highlights the importance role of audit committee functions. Specifically, the results suggest that larger or reasonable audit committee size tends to have varied skills and expertise among the audit committee members, resulting in more information by allowing for greater diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints. Gender diversity in audit members' profiles will also encourage the board to be more effective and creative in generating innovative ideas, hence more IC will be created. This study adds to the empirical studies on corporate governance from Islamic banks' perspectives covering several countries. It also introduce the Shariah capital, as one of components in the IC index to respond to the peculiarities of Islamic on intellectual capital.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of kafalah in the practice of Islamic banking in Malaysia generally and ascertain applicable rules governing the application under relevant legislations and Shariah. The study also aims to examine the legislations in the light of Shariah provisions governing kafalah and propose amendments. This is a qualitative research where primary data sources mainly legislations and secondary sources comprising of articles and books on the subject of kafalah were examined. It is an exploratory legal research that primarily focuses on library studies and adopts doctrinal approach for content analysis of data from the identified sources. Kafalah is widely used in Islamic banking in Malaysia with primary or secondary application in structuring such products/services as personal guarantee, bank guarantee, Islamic credit card among others. The substantive law applicable to kafalah in Islamic banking in Malaysia is the Contracts Act 1950 as decided cases indicate. However, provisions of the Act are at variance with rules of Shariah applicable to kafalah on absolution of guaranteed debtor, multiple guarantors' liability towards guaranteed sum as well as recourse and recovery from principal debtor.

This study investigates how the effects of government and foreign bank ownership on private credit vary in the cases of Islamic and conventional banks using data extended from Claessens and van Horen (2014) of 29 dual banking countries from 1995 to 2017. In support of the political view of financial development, we find that the presence of state-owned Islamic banks seem to be slightly less harmful to private credit flows than their conventional peers, particularly in the period after the global financial crisis. We also document evidence showing that countries with a larger foreign Islamic bank presence tend to have deeper credit markets postcrisis. However, such advantages may often be outweighed by the costs associated with increased penetration by foreign conventional banks.

Although not a near equivalent of conventional banking in terms of size, the global Islamic banking industry has grown a very rapid pace in the last three decades. Malaysia has been at the forefront of this development since early 1980s and has earned a reputation of a global hub for Islamic banking. Since its inception, much research has been carried out in this area but there is no systematic documentation of research findings in Islamic banking., though much focus has been on aspects of efficiency and performance vis-a-vis the conventional counterparts. This warrants our relooking at the research - both theoretical and empirical - in different areas of Islamic banking in Malaysia, as to provide a road-map for the structured long-term development of the industry in consonance with country's global leadership position in Islamic banking. This paper surveys and analyses the published worked on Islamic banking in Malaysia with the goals of evaluating their contribution and usefulness to various stakeholders and charting the future directions for research that could sustain Malaysia's global leadership position in Islamic banking.

Studies on Islamic banks' profitability are important towards improving performance, evaluating bank operations and determining management plan to survive in competitive markets. The present study seeks to fill a gap by providing new empirical evidence on the factors that influence the profitability of the Islamic banks. The ordinary least square method is employed using annual data of 2013 on 44 Islamic banks from Asian and African region. The findings reveal that bank-specific factors such as the operating efficiency ratio are negatively and statistically significant to the profitability of the Islamic banks, while equity financing is positive and statistically significant to the profitability. The credit risks and liquidity risks factors are insignificant on the performance of the Islamic banks. On the other hand, macroeconomic factors such as inflation have a positive and significant impact on the profitability whereas GDP growth rate has no significant impact on the profitability of Islamic banks.

Even though large banks could imply large risks and heightened vulnerability for a country's macroeconomy, the presence of many small banks with similar behavior such as Islamic banks could also cause systemic risks. This article makes an initial attempt to investigate the impact of bank size on banking performance. Our study spans 12 emerging countries with dual banking systems and applies two-step dynamic system GMM estimator. The results show that size really does matter in the banking industry, and its impact on performance tends to be non-linear with a trade-off between profitability and efficiency. Comparing conventional with Islamic banks, we find that bank size has almost the same impact on the performance of both types of banks.