Islamic Finance

This study examines the impact of globalization on cross-country inequality and poverty using a new comparable panel data for Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and non-OIC developing countries over a long period, 1970–2008. The major findings of the study are that, first, a non-monotonic relationship between income distribution and level of economic development holds in both samples of countries. However, this relationship is comparatively stronger in the case of non-OIC countries.

The report delves into the vexed question of who is driving the Islamic finance industry, which has multiple players – Islamic scholars, regulators and, finally, practitioners – in the fray. It outlines the historical evolution of the industry and concomitantly the roles of its disparate stakeholders during the different stages of development. Starting with a few isolated and independent initiatives, the industry has evolved to acquire the robust shape it has today.

In February 2011, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) issued a directive ordering conventional banks to wind up their Shariah-compliant banking branches, which took the banking industry in Qatar by storm. At the time, the Shariah-compliant asset allocation of conventional banks averaged about 10% of their total assets, while full-fledged Shariah-compliant banks in Qatar had assets of nearly one-fifth of the total banking assets in the country.

For many years, microfinance (MF) was considered an appropriate tool to accomplish social and financial goals simultaneously. Over time, microfinance has become more commercialized, transforming into a financially efficient industry, allowing customers to have access to more sophisticated banking products (e.g. small housing loans). Despite interest from the commercial sector, the industry has yet to find a workable market-based solution to fund microfinance. Microfinance in the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) faces two challenges: 1.

Different institutions are engaged in the development efforts in Indonesia by appealing to different sectors of socio-economic life. Among such institutions, BMT (Baitul Maal wa Tamweel) and BPRS (Shariah People Credit Bank) are the main players of the shariah micro-finance institution in Indonesia. However, these two institutions are different in nature: whereas BMT is a shariah cooperative with only limited support, regulation and monitoring, BPRS is a bank which receives sufficient support, regulation and monitoring from the Central Bank.

In this paper, we analyse the Sustainable Development Goals performance of a global sample of 4,643 firms (34,177 firm year observations) across 43 countries.

Financial health is crucial to the continuous existence and operation of any organisation. It is even more essential in the case of