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.

The Islamic banking industry has grown and gained a remarkable position in the global share of the financial sector. This growth requires a strong emphasis on intellectual capital (IC) that includes dedicated human capital, reliable structural capital, and a committed and long lasting relational capital among participants in the Islamic banking ecosystem. The study aims is to examine and compare the intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) practices of Islamic banks under different reporting regimes. The IFRS issued by IASB and FAS issued by AAOIFI are the two commonly used standards for financial repoting by Islamic banks. The findings indicate that, on average, there is not much difference between IFSB and AAOIFI scores (IASB:57.25% vs AAOIFI: 56.58%); in fact, most of IFSB-based banks performed better that AAOIFI-based banks throughout the period of study except in first year (i.e. 2012). The study also examined the relationship of corporate governance and the moderating role of Shariah committee with the extent of ICD practices among the Islamic banks. Several corporate governance mechanisms such as board size, number of board meetings, board gender, board independence, board expertise, audit committee size, number of audit committee meeting, audit committee gender, audit committee independence, and audit committee expertise were used as dependent variables. While, selected Shariah committee characteristics that, included Shariah committee size and Shariah committee gender were the moderating variables and firm characteristics were used as control variables to control for cross-sectional differences associated with ICD. The study applied the prominent resourced-based, agency and legitimacy theories and formulated twenty-three (23) hypotheses. Based on a total sample of 231 Islamic banks in four countries, namely Malaysia, Brunei, Bahrain and Jordan covering year 2012 to 2018, the findings revealed that having an effective governance structure is essential, as it is able to influence the ICD practices of Islamic banks. Specifically, the study found that ICD practices of Islamic banks is significantly and positively associated with board size, board independence, audit committee gender and audit committee independence. The results suggest that larger or reasonable board size tends to have varied skills and expertise among the board members, resulting in more information by allowing for greater diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints.

This research empirically investigates the role of profit sharing investment accounts in providing market discipline and the extent to which PSIA influences Islamic banks' stability, efficiency and financing growth, thus complementing government supervision and regulation of Islamic banks. Data from 48 Islamic banks from 13 countries in different regions over the period 2007 to 2014 were collected. A two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) was applied to estimate the equations. The fixed and random effects and the two-step difference GMM were also applied for comparison purposes. The empirical results do support the view that PSIA is able to influence the Islamic banks’ prudent behaviour, and provide evidence that PSIA is an effective instrument of market discipline. PSIA was found to be able to reduce credit risk of Islamic banks and influence their financial health by maintaining adequate capitalization. The study further finds evidence to support that PSIA is able to provide discipline and influence Islamic banks’ cost management and a boost to their financing growth. PSIA not only improves banks’ market discipline by directly reducing non-performing loans but also influences reduction of cost to income ratio, improving the Islamic banks’ efficiency.

Over the last few decades, the Islamic financial system has shown a strong and improved performance, where the global total assets of the industry as of end 2014 has exceeding USD2.0 trillion or a compounded annual growth rate (GACR) of 17.4% between 2009 and 2014. The Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) reported monumental issuances in sovereign sukuks by the governments of the UK, Senegal, Hong Kong, South Africa and Luxembourg ammounting to USD 115 billion.

This chapter discusses some challenges of Shariah Committees In Islamic financial institutions in dispensing their responsibilities in mitigating the non-compliance risks. The concept of shariah governance has its foundation in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Shariah (which literally means "the way") is the divinely ordained guidelines of conduct for Muslims in all aspects of their life, which includes financial matters. Any form of transaction, irrespective of financial or otherwise, must be free of any element of injustice to the transacting parties. For financial transactions, any elemerit or form of activity that could be construed as 'riba' or injustice to any of the participants in the transaction is absolutely forbidden. The objective is to ensure that the operations of Islamic Financial Institutions (lFIs) are shariah compliant, failing which will result in loss of confidence and credibility that will impede the future growth of Islamic finance Industry.

The concept of Shariah governance has its foundation in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Shariah (which literally means "the way") is the divinely ordained guidelines of conduct for Muslims in all aspects of their life, which includes financial matters. Any form of transaction, irrespective of financial or otherwise, must be free of any element of injustice to the transacting parties.