Islamic Finance

An understanding of financing behaviour explains the performance of Islamic banks as an alternative to the conventional finance model as suppliers of capital for businesses and entrepreneurs. In the Islamic banking system, banks are suppliers of capital and not lenders unlike that stipulated in a traditional banking system. To date, Islamic banks have become the major source of capital in Malaysia and lending behaviour is an important policy variable.

According to the financial press, firms with low leverage have lower distress risk due to their reduced exposure to the credit market, especially during credit crises. Compared to their conventional and socially responsible (SRI) counterparts, Shariah compliant (SC) stocks are low-leverage stocks. Our hypothesis is that SC firms would be less sensitive to leverage risk and thus would be ideal for wealth preservation during declining market environment.

The current paper reports the outcome of investigating the sustainability and efficiency of Shariah–compliant investment from the global and cross-country perspectives. Our findings, thus far, suggest that global Shariah compliant 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 present study provides new empirical evidence on the impact of economic freedom on Islamic banks’ performance. The empirical analysis focuses on Islamic banks operating in the MENA banking sectors during the period 2000–2008. We find that the larger, more diversified, and better capitalized Islamic banks tend to be relatively more profitable, while credit risk and expense preference behaviour seem to exert negative impact. The findings suggest that greater financial freedom positively influence the profitability of Islamic banks operating in the MENA banking sectors.

Only a few cross-country empirical studies have been conducted to measure the performance of commercial banks especially before, during, and after crises (financial or political). This study makes an attempt to fill the gap in the literature by investigating the impacts of crises on Gulf Corporate Council (GCC) commercial banks’ performance over the period 1997-2007. The rationale behind this selection is that the GCC countries within this period witnessed two major crises: a political crisis (the second Gulf war) and a financial crisis (the current global crisis).

Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper estimates the efficiency of 25 Islamic banks operating in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries during the period 2003–2009. It also examines the relationship between the efficiency of Islamic banks and the performance of their stock. The results suggest that efficiency measures, particularly technical and pure technical efficiency, have increased over the period of study but remain low as compared to conventional banks. The inefficiency of Islamic banks can be attributed to pure technical inefficiency rather than to scale inefficiency.

This paper investigates the determinants of banking profitability in the Turkish banking sector between 2003 and 2011. In addition, we calculate the effect of being an Islamic bank on banking profitability, which allows us to differentiate conventional and Islamic banks. We introduce the method of propensity score matching to the banking literature in order to estimate the average treatment effect (ATE) of being an Islamic bank in Turkey where there exists a dual banking system.

On the deposit side, Islamic banks work on a mudaraba (partnership) contract, where the depositor and the bank are business partners.

Banks avoid participatory financing due to serious information asymmetries, adverse selection and moral hazard problems resulting in negative impacts for the return on capital provided. Even financing instruments with a participatory legal form such as musharakah sukuk have been stripped of their risk sharing substance and become functional equivalents of interestbearing bonds.

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.