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The purpose of the study is to adopt Morlet’s wavelet method to examine the differences in the level of volatility (i.e. riskiness) between the conventional and Shari’ah indexes during the COVID-19 pandemic (February 4 to June 19, 2020) on selected Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. As a comparison, the equivalent time period of relative tranquillity is used; February 4 to June 19, 2019.

Morlet’s wavelet method is used in analyzing the volatility levels for both the conventional and Shari’ah indexes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic for the selected ASEAN and GCC countries.

This study has several findings; first, the markets in the ASEAN region appear to be more volatile during the pandemic than in the GCC region. Second, most of the Shari’ah indexes were more volatile during the COVID-19 pandemic than their conventional counterparts. Nevertheless, the GCC index pairs appear to show more similarities between both the Shari’ah and conventional index.

The findings from this study indicate that investors, government, regulators and all other stakeholders should stay vigilant during a pandemic or health threat period as it has become a pertinent source of volatility spillovers. As such, investors should devise optimal asset allocation strategies, portfolio diversification and portfolio rebalancing measures, taking into consideration not only financial adversity but also public health gravity as a potential source of turbulent markets.

This study uses the wavelet method to examine the volatility level of both the Shari’ah and conventional indexes during the COVID-19 pandemic and its equivalent time frame in 2019. It has further added to the Islamic literature by comparing the volatility between selected ASEAN and GCC countries. The wavelet method is most appropriate for short-duration studies as it captures both the time and frequency domains of the time-series behavior.

This paper aims to expand the literature on performance and volatility of Islamic funds and indices in comparison to their conventional unscreened counterparts, by studying the Moroccan case considering the recent introduction of Islamic finance in the country toward the end of 2015.

As there are still no Shariah-compliant indices in Morocco, the authors first applied four Shariah screening methodologies of some of the world leading equity index providers (i.e. Dow Jones, FTSE, S&P and MSCI) to screen the public listed companies in Casablanca Stock Exchange for Shariah compliance. Next, the authors constructed four Islamic float-weighted indexes for which they modeled the dynamic volatility using an extension of the AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity models, namely, EGARCH(1,1).

The findings show that the screening process resulted in a well-diversified universe of Shariah-compliant stocks (25.6 per cent) to invest in. Furthermore, it is found that constructed Islamic indices outperformed the broad-based Moroccan All Shares Index (MASI) during the considered period of analysis (January 2013 to December 2014), and their long-run volatility is higher. This indicates that investors in Shariah-compliant stocks do not sacrifice financial performance for their risky investment. The estimates of the model show that volatility for the MASI is more persistent and takes longer time to die, and the leverage effect is positive for all indices, meaning that volatility of indexes’ returns is influenced more by good news than bad news, a result that is in contrast to other studies for developed countries.

On the arrival of the new banking law that introduced Islamic finance for the first time in Morocco, the authors suppose that these results could be very helpful for the Moroccan financial authorities in consideration with the construction of Islamic equity indices for Muslim investors seeking to invest ethically in accordance to their religious convictions but also for index funds managers and other equity market players.

The present study is the first of its kind in Morocco to construct Islamic indices using Shariah screening methodologies for which the volatility is modeled using an EGARCH(1,1) dynamic volatility model.

The purpose of this paper is to explore disclosure on corporate governance mechanisms in annual reports of Islamic commercial banks in Indonesia.

Employing a sample comprising seven Islamic commercial banks in Indonesia, the present study constructs the so‐called Corporate Governance Disclosure Index (CGDI) to score the banks' disclosure level. Corporate governance mechanisms addressed in this study include Shariah Supervisory Board, the Board of Commissioners, the Board of Directors, board committees, internal control and external audit, and risk management.

It is revealed that Bank Muamalat and Bank Syariah Mandiri, the county's two largest and oldest Islamic commercial banks, score higher than their peers. Disclosure of the sample banks on some dimensions, such as board members and risk management, is found to be strong. On the other hand, disclosure on internal control and board committees tends to be weak.

This study shows that the average disclosure level among the sample banks is relatively low. Hence, this result has important implications for the enhancement of corporate governance disclosure of Islamic banks, thereby wider acceptance and enhanced reputation could be gained.

This paper is believed to be among the first to explore the practice of disclosure on corporate governance mechanisms among Islamic commercial banks. Additionally, it focuses on Indonesia, the largest Muslim country that has a different institutional setting from that in other Muslim countries.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the syariah compliant screening methods that are practiced by prominent Islamic finance users, in terms of qualitative and quantitative screening.

This research uses comparative analysis to recognize the similarities and differences of methods among 15 users.

Analysis reveals that there is a need to set the universal standards, not only for the investors but also to discourage the misunderstanding between investors and scholars. After analysis of qualitative and quantitative screening, recommendations for both methods have been made for the shariah compliant board and users.

The paper is useful for Islamic finance users, as well from the academic point of view and is new and unique in its nature.

This study aims to formulate an index formula for mosque empowerment based on Maqashid Syariah as a measuring tool for the level of mosque empowerment.

This study uses a qualitative and quantitative approach (mixed method). Data collection techniques are carried out by in-depth interviews with experts consisting of academics, practitioners, scholars and regulators. The data analysis technique uses the Analytical Network Process (ANP) with Super Decision 2.10 software to construct the index model structure.

The results indicate that the mosque has a multi-field role, including in the fields of worship, social, education, politics, economy and culture. This study produces an index of mosque empowerment based on Maqashid Syariah, composed of sic criteria, namely, elements of Maqashid Syariah; protect religion, soul, mind, lineage, property and environment. The weighting results of the criteria indicate that maintaining religion is the main criterion with a weighted value of 0.209. Each of these criteria consists of five indicators. Of all indicators, environmental safety is the top priority, with a weighted value of 0.056.

This study is the first comprehensive study that discusses the mosque empowerment index by weighting the ANP method to produce an index of mosque empowerment based on Maqashid Syariah.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary disclosure (EVD) (i.e. overall, conventional, and Islamic disclosure) in the annual reports of Shariah Approved Companies (ShAC) listed on Bursa Malaysia.

A disclosure index was developed, which consists of 59 items (including items related to the Shariah, i.e. Islamic items), to measure the EVD in the annual reports of ShAC. Secondary data from annual reports were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t‐test.

ShAC disclosed on average 19, 21 and 17 percent of overall, conventional, and Islamic items, respectively. The EVD of conventional items is comparable to prior studies, and higher than Islamic items.

The paper only used one‐year annual reports for the year 2003, but it provides a starting point for future research on the issue of voluntary disclosure by ShAC.

The findings provide evidence that ShAC still lack voluntary disclosure, especially, Islamic disclosure items. Such findings could be useful to regulation authorities in Malaysia for the improvement of overall disclosure practices by ShAC.

The paper is the first empirical study to investigate the EVD, both Islamic and conventional, in the annual reports of ShAC.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transmission of information (at return and volatility level) as well as the correlation between Kuala Lumpur Syariah and Jakarta Islamic Indices.

The daily return from July 4, 2000 to December 29, 2006 was employed in the bivariate VAR GJR‐GARCH model.

The results indicate significant unidirectional return and volatility transmissions from Kuala Lumpur Syariah and the Jakarta Islamic Indices. There is no evidence of asymmetric effects in volatility for both markets. However, volatility is highly persistent and mean‐reverting in each market. The findings also revealed that there is low correlation between the two Islamic stock markets investigated.

The data used in this study are limited to the Islamic stock markets located in South East Asia, concentrating more on the post‐economic crisis period analysis. Further research may be conducted using a different time period and frequency of data while utilizing more Islamic indices. In addition, future research may look at and compare the market interdependence of Islamic stock markets in different economic conditions such as the pre‐economic crisis period, during an economic crisis period or post‐economic crisis period.

Market participants such as investors and market analysts should include the Malaysian Islamic stock market in forecasting market price movement and the volatility of the Indonesian Islamic stock market. In addition, both the Kuala Lumpur Syariah and Jakarta Islamic Indices offer potential for diversification to investors who wish to create an Islamic portfolio investment. From the regulator point of view, this study highlighted the fact that the Jakarta Stock Exchange should consider the Malaysian Islamic stock market in setting its policy to control the volatility of the Indonesian Islamic stock market because the source of volatility in Indonesian market is not only from the market itself, but also from the Malaysian market. On the other hand, in controlling the volatility of the Islamic Malaysian market, Bursa Malaysia should only implement a policy related to the Malaysian market because the source of volatility only comes from the local markets. Finally, the policy makers in both markets do not need to implement long‐range measures to reduce the impact of volatility persistence in these markets.

This is the first paper to investigate information transmission and market interdependence between the Islamic stock markets in South East Asia.

This study aims to investigate the interactions among macroeconomic variable shocks, banking fragility and home financing provided by conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia. Identifying the causes of financial instability and the effects of macroeconomic shocks can help to foil the onset of future financial turbulence.

The autoregressive distributed lag bound-testing cointegration approach, impulse response functions (IRFs) and forecast error variance decomposition are used in this study to unravel the long-run and short-run dynamics among the selected macroeconomic variables and amount of home financing offered by both conventional and Islamic banks. In addition, the study uses Granger causality tests to investigate the short-run causalities among the selected variables to further understand the impact of one macroeconomic shock to Islamic and conventional home financing.

This study provides evidence that macroeconomic shocks have different long-run and short-run effects on amount of home financing offered by conventional and Islamic banks. Both in the long run and short run, home financing provided by Islamic banks is more linked to real sector economy and thus is more stable as compared to home financing provided by conventional banks. The Granger causality test reveals that only gross domestic product (GDP), Kuala Lumpur Syariah Index (KLSI)/Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) and house price index (HPI) are found to have a statistically significant causal relationship with home financing offered by both conventional and Islamic banks. Unlike the case of Islamic banks, conventional home financing is found to have a unidirectional causality with interest rates.

This study has focused on analyzing the macroeconomic shocks on home financing. However, this study does not assess the impact of financial deregulation and enhanced information technology on amount of financing offered by both conventional and Islamic banks. In addition, it is not within the ambit of this present study to examine the effects of agency costs and information asymmetry.

The analysis of cointegration and IRFs exhibits that in the long run and short run, home financing provided by Islamic banks are more linked to real sector economy like GDP and House Prices (HPI) and therefore more resilient to economic vulnerabilities as compared to home financing provided by conventional banks. However, in the long run, both conventional and Islamic banks are more susceptible to fluctuations in interest rates. The results of the study suggest that monetary policy ramifications to improve banking fragility should focus on stabilizing interest rates or finding an alternative that is free from interest.

Because interest plays a significant role in pricing of home loans, the potential of an alternative such as rental rate is therefore timely and worth the effort to investigate further. Therefore, Islamic banks can explore the possibility of pricing home financing based on rental rate as proposed in this study.

This paper examines the unresolved issues in Islamic home financing where Islamic banks still benchmark their products especially home financing, to interest rates in dual banking system such as in the case of Malaysia. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, studies conducted in this area are meager and therefore is imperative to be examined.

The purpose of this paper is to engage in a systematic examination of previous scholarship on the relationship between Sharia governance (SG), which is represented by the Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB), and the Internal Sharia Review (ISR), to determine whether the ISR can minimize financing risk in Islamic banking.

The literature search consisted of two steps: a randomized and systematic literature review. The methodology adopted in this article is a systematic literature review.

To reduce the risk of financing in Islamic banking, SG must be implemented optimally by making rules regarding the role of the SSB in supervising customer financing. In addition, it is a necessary to establish an entity that assists the SSB in the implementation of SG, namely, the ISR section, but there is still very little research on the role of the SSB and ISR in minimizing financing risk.

Establishing an ISR to assist the SSB in carrying out its duties has direct practical implications for Islamic banking: minimizing financing risks and compliance with Islamic Sharia principles. In addition, new rules regarding the role of SSBs and the ISR in reducing credit risk include monitoring customers to ensure that they fulfill their financing commitments on time. This new form of regulation and review can be used as a reference by the Otoritas Jasa Keuangan or Finance Service Authority to create new policies or regulations regarding SG, especially in Indonesia.

Subsequent research may introduce other more relevant variables, such as empirically testing the competence, independence or integrity of SSB and the ISR team as it attempts to minimize the risk of financing in Islamic banks. In addition, further research is expected to examine whether the SSB or the ISR team has a positive or negative influence on the risk of financing Islamic banks with secondary data.

There is a great deal of research that has been done to investigate the investment characteristics of conventional socially responsible investment portfolios compared to their broader conventional counterparts. However, the impact of incorporating sustainability criteria into the traditional Sharia screening process has not so far been investigated. Therefore, the study aims to give empirical evidence as to whether or not incorporating sustainability socially responsible criteria in the traditional Sharia screening process has a significant impact on the investment characteristics of the Islamic investment portfolio.

The paper examines the investment characteristics of four groups of investment portfolios mainly, Dow Jones Global Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index and Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index. To improve the robustness of the study, the analysis was carried out at different levels. First, absolute mean return and t‐test were used to examine whether the difference between the different groups of investments is statistically significant or not. Second, risk adjusted equilibrium models, both single‐index and Fama and French multi‐index, were employed. This is to control for different risk exposure and investment style bias associated with different investment portfolios examined.

The paper finds that neither the Sharia nor the sustainability screening process seems to have an adverse impact on the performance and systematic risk of the investment portfolios compared to their unrestricted conventional counterparts. Therefore, Muslim as well as socially responsible investors can choose investments that are consistent with their value systems and beliefs without being forced to sacrifice performance or expose to higher systematic risk.

The study contributes to the existing literature by giving new evidence on the impact of incorporating sustainability criteria into the traditional Sharia screening process that has not so far been investigated.