Islamic Finance

Nearly fifteen years after the establishment of the first Islamic bank Indonesia, a new law was introduced in 2006 that in effect empowers the Religious Court in the country to oversee, hear and decide on disputes relating to matters of Islamic finance and Islamic economics. In its way to the enactment, the Parliament preferred the word ‘Islamic economics’ than the word ‘Islamic banking’ which was initially put in the draft law.

Poverty is a multi-faceted phenomenon. Many have studied the concept in diverse prisms and employed a variety of theories to understand it. Previous Islamic studies found

The main aim of this research is to investigate how efficient is the only existing Islamic bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) related to average efficiency of other banks from our sample. The analysis has been conducted on the sample of 18 conventional and one Islamic bank from data published by Banking Agency of Federation of B-H for 2009. The banking and economic environment of B-H as European, post-communist and transition country is of conventional type, and it has not been analyzed in this sense ever before.

After decades of its birth, Islamic economics has undoubtedly gaining its strength. However, it could not be regarded as yet, inevitably, as being a zero-defect discipline. Although the debate on Islamic economics seems to be almost rather settled, but a revisit to it is still indispensable. This is exactly what this paper intends to do. It attempts to revisit the mainstream Islamic economics and explore two unresolved concerns that are observed to have prevailed in it, so as efforts to overcome them could entail with a more proper development of the discipline.

The more recent literature on Islamic economics is largely about Islamic financial instruments and institutions. It might give an impression as if the main difference between conventional and Islamic economics is in the instrumental part, rather than fundamental aspect. Islamic economics is not about the prohibition of certain goods and services. It is a vastly different economic system whose answers to the core economic questions vary significantly. As currently done, mimicking conventional economics and finance is only creating Islamic economics and finance by name.

One of the goals of Islamic banking operations is to increase the economic growth towards a better and just society. This study aims to examine the criteria and Islamic instrument of corporate social responsibility towards the creation of a sustainable economic development. Specifically, the study analyses the various approaches to improve the quality of life and alleviate poverty and the methods of applying Islamic instruments to corporate social responsibility programs in Islamic banking.

Ethics has become increasingly important in the financial services sector on the grounds that the aim of business activities in general and financial services in particular is the creation of value for the consumer. Furthermore, an ethical environment in the business and financial sectors provides vital support for maximising long-term owner value. This paper tries to address the current imbalance of emphasis and the lack of a comprehensive discussion on business ethics from a wider cultural and religious perspective with reference to

Current paper reports the outcome investigating the sustainability and efficiency of Shariah-complaint investment from the global and cross-country perspectives. Our findings, thus far, suggest that global Shariah complaint sustainable shares performed slightly better than global sustainable shares in general, during 2006-2011, and Shariah compliant shares performed substantially better than global market during the same period.

The last decade witnessed dramatic growth of the Islamic banking and finance sector, which had largely been credited to its adoption of the profit and loss sharing principles. However, in practice, the Islamic banks mostly reply on debt-like financing methods such as mark-up and leasing finance instead. Consequently, the equity investors are exposed to default risks.

The last few decades have seen a phenomenal growth of the emerging discipline of Islamic Economics and Finance. In this paper I trace the origins and birth of this nascent science, examining the various factors that gave impetus to its emergence and development. I contrast the different characterisations of the discipline as it has developed within the broader sociopolitical context and the reasons thereof.