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The purpose of this paper is to develop a new Islamic credit card model that is in line with Shariah principles and can be adopted as an alternative to contemporary Islamic credit card models by Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia.

This paper is theoretical in nature and mainly based on descriptive research method approach.

The overall findings indicate that the contemporary practice of Islamic credit card in Malaysia is still controversial in its design and operation. Moreover, the adoption and practice of Shariah contracts in bay’ al-inah, tawarruq and ujrah models are not in line with fundamental doctrines of Shariah and are imbued with the practice of hilah (legal trick), which allows them to circumvent the prohibition of riba. The paper indicates that Al-Muqassah model possibly has a comparative advantage in design and operation when compared with the bay’ al-inah, tawarruq or ujrah models.

The paper is limited to develop a new Shariah-compliant Islamic credit card model. The paper presents a design and defines the underlying Islamic financial contracts and their working mechanisms in the proposed model. However, it will not address other related areas like consumer perception, legal and regulatory requirements.

The paper will have direct implications on contemporary practice of Islamic credit card in Malaysia and elsewhere. The practice of Al-Muqassah model can also possibly have effects on common well-being and economic development.

The paper has relevance for Islamic financial institutions offering Islamic credit cards. The proposed model is fully in line with fundamental doctrines of Shariah and performs the key functions of an Islamic credit card.

Purpose – A study of Islamic banking products, especially bay’ al-tawarruq transactions, demonstrates that the purpose of these transactions is to provide liquidity to the customer, such as personal financing, working capital expenditure, cash lines and credit cards. However, as the industry expands, the industry is innovating to extend products to include an investment and deposit instrument that provides a fixed return to the customer. As the second fully-fledged Islamic bank in Malaysia, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (BMMB) offers products based on the bay’ al-tawarruq concept.

Methodology/approach – This study investigates the original principles of the bay’ al-tawarruq contract and its current applications in BMMB.

Findings – The study found that the bay’ al-tawarruq contract is being adopted as an alternative to the bay’ al-‘inah contract, especially for financing-based products offered by BMMB.

Originality/value – This is an attempt to study the application of Tawarruq contract in Bank Muamalat’s product offerings based on the process and mechanism of Bursa Suq al-Sila’ (BSAS).

This paper aims to analyse the new standards on Sukuk which was issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI) as a result of the strong critics posed by Shaykh Taqi in the end of 2007 that 85 percent of Sukuk issuance were not in line with the teachings of Shariah.

This study reviewed samples of Sukuk prior and after the new AAOIFI pronouncement by focusing on controversial areas such as ownership transfer, pricing and guarantee element. This paper used content analysis approaches to analyse the pronouncement and the samples.

The findings showed that there were negligible changes on the principle term and condition (PTC) of the Sukuk after the pronouncement, thus it did not have much effect in changing the Shariah Advisors and industry players when deciding more authentic principles and decisions.

Based on the findings, it is acceptable that the advisors tried their very best in making efforts to minimize controversial decisions as to suit current financial practices.

Islamic Finance and Investment

Level of program/audience: Advanced undergraduate and postgraduate.

Intermediate and Advanced Finance, Economics, Islamic Economics & Finance, Islamic Banking & Finance, Islamic Capital Market and other relevant courses.

Capital markets instruments, conventional or Islamic.

This case focuses on Tracoma Holding Berhad Bai Bithaman Ajil Debt Securities (BaIDS) amounting to RM 100 million which was issued by Tracoma Holding Berhad in 2005. It was the first issuance of a sukuk (Islamic debt securities or bond) by the company. The proceeds were used to finance its growth and to repay existing bank borrowings and capital requirements. This case is interesting, as it allows students to study the bai bithaman ajil sukuk structure and issuance process in the Malaysian capital market. It also provides basic financial transaction and credit rating of sukuk which requires analytical skills. Being a debt-based facility, the sukuk was subjected to credit rating evaluation by the MARC, the rating agency appointed by the company. Further downgrading of the sukuk meant it would lead to the worst-case scenario. Some actions needed to be taken to solve this issue; therefore, the CFO suggested an urgent meeting with the sukuk holders.

The students should be able to: understand the issuance process and the principle of BBA (bai bithamin ajil) in sukuk structure; understand reason(s) methods of fund raising by firm and the allocations of fund; understand the sukuk default issue; analyze the reasons for sukuk default; understand the importance of debt securities credit ratings; and identify investors' protection in the case of sukuk default.

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This paper aims to provide an analytical literature survey of selective studies on legal documentation in Islamic home financing with particular reference to Malaysia.

This study adopts the legal positivist methodology, with particular reference to inclusive legal positivism which takes into consideration the possibility of moral values challenging positive law. Within the context of this study, though positive law provides for rules that govern contractual matters in Islamic home financing, standardisation is a functionality of maslahah (or public interest) which transcends the mandatory provisions of positive law but helps to protect the interest of all stakeholders. This is analysed through a systematic literature review which aims to provide practical insights into industry practices relating to Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

This paper provides information on the standard documentation used by conventional banks and existing practices of diverse models of legal documentation in the home financing sector within the Islamic financial services industry in Malaysia. It also recognises the need for standard documentation that is not only Sharīʿah-compliant but also consumer-friendly, as the terms of any standard financing agreement ought to ensure consumer protection. There is also the need for a Shari’ah-compliant Sales and Purchase Agreement, as it forms part of the complete set of legal documentation for Islamic home financing.

It is not an exhaustive study, as it did not consider practices in other jurisdictions offering Islamic financial services and products but only focusses on Malaysia. Though one may not generalise the findings of this study, Malaysia remains a leading model and a global hub for Islamic financial services and products.

A very useful source of information on the current state of legal documentation in Islamic home financing in Malaysia and the prevailing practices in the industry, which may serve as a guide for policymakers such as the Association of Islamic Banks in Malaysia (AIBIM) to embark on a full scale project of standardisation of all the legal documentation used in Islamic home financing.

This study fulfils an identified need of standardisation of legal documentation used in Islamic home financing in Malaysia and offers practical help to policymakers and future researchers starting out on systemic reforms.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the probability of Islamic credit card usage intention among Islamic banks' customers. Financial cost, knowledge of Islamic credit card, attitude, financial recommendation and demographic items were examined in order to determine whether these factors are influencing the Islamic credit card usage intention or not.

Drawing upon the theory of reasoned action (TRA), this study proposes a conceptual model to examine the factors determining the Islamic credit card usage intention. The research model is evaluated using survey data from 354 respondents with the help of a questionnaire.

The results reveal that “financial recommendation”, “knowledge on Islamic credit card”, “age (young)”, “marital status”, “religion” and “education level” are significantly affecting the Islamic credit card usage intention. The research also concludes that “attitude on Islamic credit card” appears to have no effect on the Islamic credit card usage intention.

The research has two limitations. The limitations however provide support for future researches in the area of Islamic credit card. Despite the limitations, the study contributes to the body of academic knowledge by shedding more light onto the factors affecting Islamic credit card usage intention.

Insights reported from this study are of particular importance to bank managers, providing them with an improved understanding pertaining to the Malaysian bank customers' usage intentions for Islamic credit cards. The research helps them to better plan for Islamic credit card facilities, in order to cater for the financial needs of Malaysia bank customers.

The contribution of the research lies in achieving a more profound understanding of Malaysia bank customers' usage intentions for Islamic credit cards. The research manages to discover the factors which particularly determine the use of Islamic credit cards. It also expands the literature on Islamic credit cards.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concepts of hilah (legal stratagem or legal trick) and makhraj (legal exit) and to examine their relevance and application in the contemporary Islamic financial services and products.

This paper uses the qualitative research approach to provide a theoretical overview of hilah and makhraj literally and technically and to examine their practical applications in Islamic financial products and services. In particular, this paper evaluates several Islamic financial contracts and examines its practices in light of the implications of hilah or makhraj.

The paper finds that there is a glaring difference in perception and application of hilah and makhraj, as argued by some scholars. It has been found that the principle of hilah has been extensively used in the Islamic finance industry as a way to circumvent the riba prohibition. For example, Islamic financial instruments such as bay’ bithaman al-ajil, bay’ al-‘inah, tawarruq, commodity murabahah, musharakah mutanaqisah and, in some cases, the sale and lease back sukuk are found to be tainted by hilah.

Because this is a theoretical paper, it should be explored in more detail, and critical analysis of Islamic financial services and products should be reviewed in line with these two principles to ascertain if the products and services are in line with Shariah requirements and devoid of hilah practices or not and to align the industry with the maqasid al-Shariah.

This paper identifies a serious challenge that Islamic finance practitioners face in product development in their effort to provide more competitive services to their customers. As a result, it demonstrates the need to proactively use makhraj in innovating Islamic financial products and proffering more sustainable and competitive solutions.

This paper discusses a topic that attempts to dispel the suspicious perceptions of some analysts as to the genuineness of Islamic financial practices.

This paper aims to reviews Sukuk risk classification schemes based on extending and adapting the risk classification schemes of conventional finance. It is then argued that risk classification schemes based on Sukuk structure provide significant insights into Sukuk risk not obtainable from conventional schemes. This is because Sukuk structure risk classification schemes link Sukuk risk more directly to the fundamental causal factors creating those risks. These links are less evident in conventional risk classification schemes. It is hypothesised that Sukuk structure risk factors will prove to be highly significant in multifactor expected return regressions.

The paper argues that, given the paucity of the empirical data currently available to researchers in Islamic finance, greater care needs to be taken in hypothesis development than is necessary for conventional finance. The limited data available should be used for testing hypotheses and not “wasted” in hypothesis formation. Through a meta-analysis of the existing literature on Sukuk risk, it is hypothesised that Sukuk structure risks will be highly significant in explaining Sukuk returns and returns volatilities in empirical tests.

The main Sukuk structures, debt based, equity based, assets based, agency based and hybrid structures, arise directly from the requirement of Sukuk to conform to the Shariah and to the fundamental ethical principles of Islamic finance and business. Further, Sukuk risk profiles are directly related to Sukuk structures. Thus, Sukuk structure risks are essentially Shariah risks. The paper presents a Sukuk risk classification matrix based on an evaluation of Sukuk structure risks.

The findings on the relation of Sukuk risks to Sukuk structures require corroboration by rigorous empirical tests.

The paper contributes to work on the creation of evidence-based risk management techniques in Islamic finance and to the expansion of ethical financial management.

The paper is one of the early detailed academic studies on the evaluation of risks arising from Sukuk structures.

This study aims to analyse the Shariah issues in the implementation of tawarruq contract in the Islamic profit rate swap (IPRS) instrument in Malaysia.

This is a qualitative study in applying data analysis and semi-structured interview approaches. Data was collected from various documents including journals, articles and past studies conducted by scholars. To achieve the purpose of this study, the data is analysed based on thematic analysis.

The study found several Shariah issues regarding the implementation of tawarruq contract in the IPRS instruments, which have remained a dispute amongst the Islamic financial scholars such as its profit-making purpose, encouragement of debt, impediment of shared risk concept, disputed underlying assets, a deception towards allowing riba and dual agency.

This study recommends several improvements such as the establishment of a neutral agency that does not represent any banking institution to manage the tawarruq contract commodity purchase from Bursa Suq al-Sila’ (BSAS). In addition, a neutral agency can provide aid in terms of transaction facility or at least consultation service for clients to enable them to conduct the commodity transactions independently.

Moreover, guidelines should be established on the separation of the deadline to sign the agreement of appointment of a bank as the commodity purchase agent and the agreement of appointment of the bank as the commodity sale agent on behalf of clients. All transactions related to tawarruq contract commodity must be done through BSAS. The regulators and industry experts may create a guideline for the IPRS based on the issues and recommendations that have been discussed in this study.

On the basis of the analysis of the criticisms and issues in the implementation of tawarruq contract in the IPRS instrument, the current study found that an intermediating institution is allowed to gain profits from transactions conducted so long as they are based on Shariah principles of contract in Islam. As there is no parameter specifically for IPRS, thus the suggested parameter can be used by policymakers such as the Central Bank of Malaysia to ensure the industry complies with Shariah principles.