This research will look at the reasons for the civil courts being the preferred mode of dispute resolution for Islamic finance disputes in Malaysia and how arbitration, based on the shari'ah can play an active role to resolve disputes in Islamic finance cases. Various features of arbitration in general and Islamic arbitration in particular will be looked into, followed by a study of the arbitration rules under two arbitration centres to find the common themes of these centres and the differences in their approach, if any ...

According to a press release from the Bank of Maldives (BML) dated the 22nd January 2025, the institution proudly marks a decade of pioneering Islamic banking services in the Maldives, reflecting the nation's increasing demand for Shariah compliant financial solutions. Since launching its Islamic banking division, BML Islamic, the bank has been steadfast in providing fully Shariah compliant banking solutions with complete segregation of funds, aligning with international standards. In line with its vision to prioritize Islamic finance, three branches in Eydhafushi, Mahibadhoo and Gan have been rebranded exclusively as BML Islamic branches, further embedding the 'Islamic Finance First' philosophy in its operations. Commenting on this milestone, Mohamed Shareef, CEO and managing director of BML, stated: "Celebrating 10 years of BML Islamic is a proud moment for Bank of Maldives. As the largest Islamic bank in the Maldives, we offer a comprehensive suite of products including accounts, cards and financing. BML Islamic was the first to introduce innovative services such as Islamic overdraft financing, cash financing, hybrid home financing, Islamic debit cards and the Maldives' only Shariah compliant credit card. These branch updates underline our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our customers."

Numerous attempts have been made to study the impact of competition on banking-stability before and after the recent global financial crisis. In the rich theoretical and empirical literature on the topic, two contradictory views have surfaced, i.e. the competition-fragility view and the competition-stability view. This thesis provides empirical evidence of a nonlinear relationship between competition and stability that explains, at least partially, the conflicting results of previous theoretical and empirical studies. Furthermore, while the existing literature focuses on conventional banking, this thesis investigates both Islamic and conventional banks in dual banking systems and explores whether or not bank types affect the competition-stability relationship. Using GMM technique on panel data covering the dual-banking countries that have significant share of Islamic banking for the period from 2004 until 2014, this thesis finds that the relationship between market power and stability is nonlinear for both Islamic and conventional banks, albeit with a marginal difference between them. The impact of market power is initially positive "supporting the charter value theory," but it turns to be negative as soon as banks' market power exceeds a certain limit, probably because the negative impact of the "too-important-to-fail" moral hazard overcomes the initial positive impact.

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.

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 COVID-19 outbreak has caused unprecedented upheavals to the global economy at a scale never seen before in the history of humankind. While governments around the world grappled for the right panacea to address the socio-economic disruptions faced by their nations, the pandemic uncovered new outlook and opportunities. This inevitably compelled the global economies to revisit and reshape their thinking, re-prioritize, re-plan and start implementing initiatives that are more sustainable, resilient, and social in nature. In this regard, banking system plays a vital role in strengthening and sustaining the economy of a country. In doing so, it must ensure that it facilities and supports the recovery measures as announced by its respective government for the survival of the nation particularly the bottom sector of the society during this challenging time.

This study extends the bank ownership database of Claessens and van Horen (2015) to investigate the role of state-owned and foreign banks in the development of private credit markets in countries with a dual banking system. The enhanced database contains state and foreign ownership information of 1,038 banks operating in 29 countries, categorised as either Islamic or non-Islamic. To begin, this study uses the database to identify the bank ownership patterns in the dual banking countries. The data reveals that the ownership structure of the Islamic banking industry changes in a different manner from that of their conventional counterpart. More specifically, it shows that, in line with financial liberalisation policies, the presence of state-owned and foreign conventional banks decreases and increases, respectively. On contrary, Islamic banks with both types of ownership become more prevalent over time. Further, the data is used to examine how state-owned and foreign bank presence affects private credit in the countries. To do so, this study employs a cross-country approach that regresses private credit to GDP ratios against the shares of total bank assets held by state-owned and foreign banks. In the regressions, the asset shares are measured both in total and by bank types (i.e., Islamic versus conventional banks). The regressions are run separately using data average over the full sample period (1995-2017), and over the three subsample periods that are divided into the pre-crisis (1995-2006), during-crisis (2007-2009), and post-crisis (2010-2017) periods. When measuring bank ownership shares in total, this study finds that the presence of state-owned banks is associated with less credit to the private sector in support of the political view. This negative relationship is, however, found to be insignificant during the crisis period. In terms of magnitude, the effect, when significant, is somewhat larger in the post-crisis period than in the pre-crisis and the full sample period. On the other hand, this study does not find significant evidence that the presence of foreign banks could adversely affect private credit markets either in the full sample period or in the subsample periods.

Bank financing is an important external source of financing for SMEs. However, banks often considered SMEs as riskier than large enterprises and therefore use various tools to mitigate their risks in SME lending / financing such as imposing collateral requirement, higher pricing and credit rationing. This may limit access to finance for the SMEs. By understanding SME default risk better, banks may reduce or eliminate the collateral requirement, lower the pricing or avoid credit rationing thus improving access to finance for the SMEs. Studies have considered various risk factors and their impact on default. However, none, to the best of my knowledge has considered religion as a risk factor. Religion has been shown to influence individual decision-making that affects economic outcomes. Thus, this thesis postulates that religion may have an effect on SME default risk too. The thesis examines religion from four perspectives; as a loan characteristics i.e. Islamic financing and conventional loan, as a firm characteristic i.e. Muslim and non-Muslim owned SME, as a brand and religiosity ...

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 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 rapid growth in Islamic banking has been accompanied by a considerable amount of research on Islamic banks, however all of the research has been at the bank level. To the best of knowledge, no branch level studies of Islamic banks has been published to date despite the recognition that branch level analysis is more critical than bank level studies (Berger & Humphrey, 1997). An often ...

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 ...

Although the well-functioning financial structure is, in general, a key to long-term sustainable economic growth and overall stability, the debate on the relationship between financial development and economic growth remains non-fading. The theoretical literature provides startlingly different and sometimes conflicting views on the finance growth nexus. In addition to this non-fading debate on finance - growth nexus, the degree of banking competition attracted increasing attention in recent years. Banking consolidations, merger and acquisitions, fuelled by overall banking deregulations and the lowering of economic barriers led to structural changes within the banking and financial environment. This prompted concerns among some observers over the potential for monopoly power in local banking markets. In short, there are two major, but contradicting, views. On one side, there are those who support competitive banking structure as it promotes competitive market practices that lead to efficiency. On the other, there are also those who argue that banks with monopolistic power (bank concentration) may spur economic growth as they are more capable of information collection, screening and monitoring borrowers ...

The issue of whether banks should diversify or focus their portfolios is theoretically and empirically open to debate. Traditional wisdom in banking argues that diversification can reduce risk and improve retums. The theory of corporate finance, however, contends that diversification increases earnings volatility, write-downs and write-offs, agency problems and inefficiency. While the former suggests that banks should be as diversified as possible, the latter recommends that banks should focus their activities. In an attempt to test these arguments, numerous empirical studies have been conducted - primarily on conventional banks in single-banking systems from developed economies and large emerging market countries. However, there is no consensus thus far as there is evidence supporting both arguments. In other words, no single strategy can be uniformly applied across banks from different countries ...

Efficiency measurement has received increased attention amid global changes and growing competition within the finance industry in all countries, including developing countries such as Yemen. The evaluation of efficiency is crucial for players in the industry, not only to assess their ability for survival, but also to remain competitive in the market. Besides, efficiency would have consequences on other areas including bank margins and earnings manipulations. Like others, Yemen's banking industry has witnessed structural changes over the past decade, which paved the way for the industry to upgrade its efforts to emulate international standards. The present study analyses the efficiency of Yemen's banking sector during the 1996-2011 period. A two-stage analysis using Data Envelopment Windows Analysis (DEWA) was employed in the first stage of the research to measure the efficiency trends of industry, followed by the panel regression technique in the second stage to examine the determinants of efficiency. As efficiency of is a major concern for all stakeholders given its implications for various areas of banking operation such as bank margins and the opportunistic behaviour via discretionary accruals "manipulation" of earnings, the study also examines on whether the effeciency would have impacted the bank margins and earnings quality.

Establishing a Shariah compliant liquidity risk management framework for Islamic banks in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) is fundamental for the development of the industry, 40 years after the licensing of the first Islamic bank in the Union. This paper provides a gap analysis of the current liquidity management framework of BCEAO, the central bank of WAEMU s member countries, focused exclusively on conventional banks activities. Institutional and operational challenges of a secular jurisdiction to fully comply with AAOIFI and IFSB standards regarding liquidity deploying and liquidity absorption, are highlighted alongside with the constraints for the establishment of a well-functioning Islamic interbank money market. After a review of the practices in mature Islamic finance jurisdictions (Malaysia, Bahrain, Indonesia and Pakistan) and in a secular jurisdiction like the United Kingdom, the paper identifies the relevant tools to manage these challenges. Finally, guidelines are proposed to establish a suitable risk management framework for Islamic banks in the WAEMU countries, in particularly the provision of a Shariah Lender of Last Resort mechanism in BCEAO s regulations and the creation of an Islamic interbank money market. This paper is hoped to accelerate the on-going work since 2012 within BCEAO and the regional Securities and Exchange Commission (AMF-UMOA), to promote the development of Islamic finance in the region with the technical assistance of the Islamic Development Bank.

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.

The rapid growth of Islamic finance, especially Islamic banking, and its perceived resiliency during the global financial crisis have been key features in recent Islamic finance literature. The Islamic banking business model has also started to attract empirical attention from economists as to whether it can instil the much needed stability into the financial system. While some studies have offered evidence that Islamic banks are relatively more stable and resilient than their conventional counterparts (Cihak and Hesse, 2010; Hasan and Dridi, 2010), there still remain several concerns over whether Islamic banks can play a distinct role in the stability of the financial system and can better allocate financial resources ...

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 ...