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This paper aims to examine the compliance status of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Financial Accounting Standards-1 and Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) Standard-4 by Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), recognizing the regulatory influence for complying with AAOIFI and IFSB standards and identifying the factors influencing the compliance with these standards.

The present study used content analysis approach for investigating the compliance status. The study considered IBBL as the only sample because it is the only Islamic bank in Bangladesh which is the member of both AAOIFI and IFSB. Hence, this paper investigated the compliance status of IBBL as a member of AAOIFI and IFSB. The study examined the annual reports of 2008-2012 as these were the latest and contemporary reports in 2013 when the study was conducted. SPSS software version 22.0 was used to analyze the data. A total of 203 items under 13 categories of AAOIFI standard and 133 items under 17 categories of IFSB standard were considered. Ordinary least squares was run to test the hypotheses of the study.

The study found that IBBL on an average complied 46.31 per cent of AAOIFI and 52.50 per cent of IFSB standards during the period, and importantly, IBBL did not comply some of the categories of required disclosures. The study also observed that size, as measured by total asset and number of branches, has a significant influence on compliance with IFSB standard, but not AAOIFI. The findings of the study depicted that IBBL did not reasonably recognize the importance of complying with AAOIFI and IFSB standards. Poor compliance or non-compliance with AAOIFI and IFSB accounting and reporting standards by IBBL exposed that the bank is not efficient in managing Shari`ah compliance risks, operational risks and transparent financial reporting. Therefore, recognition of the Shari`ah standards by the respective IFIs and a “regulatory push” is vital for improving the level of compliance with these standards.

The study considered IBBL as the only sample of the study because it is the only Islamic bank in Bangladesh which holds the membership of both AAOIFI and IFSB. The fiscal years 2008-2012 only were selected to evaluate the compliance status of the AAOIFI and IFSB standards in preparation and presentation of the financial statements of IBBL for comparative analysis because IFSB standard for accounting and disclosure was formulated in 2007; hence, the study could not evaluate the compliance status before 2008.

The study will help IBBL in identifying their limitations in complying AAOIFI and IFSB standards and also the regulators in designing the accounting and reporting frameworks in regulating Islamic banks in Bangladesh. The study would help IBBL in identifying the reasons for non-compliance, how improvement in compliance level may help the bank in mitigating Shari`ah compliance and operational risk and how new legal and institutional framework may improve the level of compliance with those standards.

The study observed that the AAOIFI and IFSB standards were set for increasing the level of Shari`ah compliance, but the compliance status showed that different classes of accounting and reporting were ignored from compliance by IBBL. This study will benefit the stakeholders in choosing a Shari`ah-compliant bank.

This is a unique study which considered both AAOIFI and IFSB accounting and reporting standards in evaluating the reporting compliance status of an Islamic bank and identified the influence of reporting compliance on managing Shari`ah compliance risks, operational risks and transparency. This study expects to instigate the Islamic banks in complying accounting and reporting standards for being Shari`ah-compliant.

Shari’ah is the foundation of Islamic banks. Although all the Islamic banks required complying with the Shari’ah requirements fully, the level of compliance differs among the Islamic banks. At the same time, Islamic banks have been performing well, but all do not demonstrate similar financial performance. This paper aims to explore whether Shari’ah compliance efficiency makes any difference in financial performance of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL).

This study used IBBL as a case. For exploring the issue of study, this paper applied an e-mail interview approach and interviewed 24 interviewees including financial analysts, IBBL clients and executives of regulatory bodies, the IBBL and other Islamic- and interest-based traditional banks. Interview opinions are then analyzed and interpreted for a deeper understanding of the topic.

The study observed that some other factors influence the financial performance of IBBL, but Shari’ah compliance is the dominant instinct of acquiring the leading position. Superior Shari’ah compliance creates internal strengths and external opportunities that facilitate IBBL in achieving higher financial performance. Most interviewees argued that Shari’ah is the only disposition that makes IBBL unique. Moreover, the bank that considerably follows Shari’ah gets better financial outcomes.

The study used a qualitative method using interview responses only for evaluating the relationship between Shari’ah compliance and financial performance. Further study may be conducted based on a quantitative approach.

This paper expects to uphold the significance of Shari’ah in improving the financial performance of IBBL and simultaneously motivating the parties associated with the Islamic banks in enhancing the level of Shari’ah compliance. Moreover, this study provides new insights into the importance Islamic banks and their performance in relation to the choice of customers.

This study explores the significance of Shari’ah compliance in creating avenues for greater financial performance and develops a model showing the ways how Shari’ah compliance leads Islamic banks to achieve higher financial positions.

This paper aims to examine the compliance status of Islamic banks in Bangladesh with Shari’ah-based accounting standards named Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) standard-4 and its association with corporate governance.

The six years of secondary data, including the annual reports of 2013–2018, were collected from the websites of all the seven listed Islamic banks, i.e. 100% of the population available during the period of study. The study used a content analysis approach for systematically categorizing and analysing the contents disclosed in the annual report. A total compliance score based on 133 reporting items of IFSB standard-4 were considered for content analysis. Furthermore, this study applied the ordinary least square to investigate the impact of corporate governance on IFSB standard-4.

This study found that the level of compliance with the IFSB standard by the Islamic banks in Bangladesh is poor, as the overall compliance status is 44.83%. Further, this study observed a significant and positive influence of the Shari’ah supervisory committee, the board size, accounting experts on the board, foreign ownership and institutional ownership on the level of compliance with IFSB standard-4. On the other hand, this study found a negative effect of directors’ ownership on the level of compliance with IFSB standard-4.

This study provides the management of Islamic banks an insight into developing their governance characteristics to comply with Islamic accounting and reporting standards. Moreover, this study expects to facilitate the management of Islamic banks in designing their accounting and reporting outlines to enhance the level of compliance with the IFSB standards.

This pioneering study on IFSB standards opens an avenue to the researchers exploring the accounting and reporting status of Islamic banks considering the requirements of the IFSB standards.

This paper furthers research into the potential contribution of pollutant databases for corporate accountability. We evaluate the quality of corporate and government mercury reporting via the Australian National Pollutant Inventory (NPI), which underpins Australia's reporting under the Minamata Convention, a global agreement to reduce mercury pollution.

The qualitative characteristics of accounting information are used as a theoretical frame to analyse ten interviews with thirteen interviewees as well as 54 submissions to the 2018 governmental enquiry into the NPI.

While Australian mercury accounting using the NPI is likely sufficient to meet the expected Minamata reporting requirements (especially in comparison to developing countries), we find significant limitations in relation to comparability, accuracy, timeliness and completeness. These limitations primarily relate to government (as opposed to industry) deficiencies, caused by insufficient funding. The findings suggest that multiple factors are required to realise the potential of pollutant databases for corporate accountability, including appropriate rules, ideological commitment and resourcing

The provision of additional funding would enable the NPI to be considerably improved (for mercury as well as other pollutants), particularly in relation to the measurement and reporting of emissions from diffuse sources.

Whilst there have been prior reviews of the NPI, none have focused on mercury, whilst conversely prior studies which have discussed mercury information have not focused on the NPI. In addition, no prior NPI studies have utilised interviews nor have engaged directly with NPI regulators. There has been little prior engagement with pollutant databases in social and environmental accounting (SEA) research.

This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in the annual report by banking companies in Bangladesh, identify the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting and examine whether there is any relationship between the extent of CSR reporting and bank characteristics. CSR movement and CSR reporting practices by financial sector have gathered great momentum in recent years. Banking sector is in the leading position in discharging CSR reporting.

The sample composed of all the 30 banking companies enlisted in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), and the study used content analysis approach for systematic categorization and analysis of the contents reported in the annual report. A total of 97 CSR items classified into seven classes were selected through a relevant literature review, as the expected items and average, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, percentage and correlation, etc. were used as the tools of analysis. SPSS software version 19.0 was used to analyze the data. An ordinary least square (OLS) regression model is fitted to the data for assessing the effect of independent variables on total CSR reporting score.

The study found that the extent of CSR reporting in banking companies in Bangladesh varies from 27.84 to 65.98 per cent, and on an average, they report 47.39 per cent of the expected CSR items in annual report. It is also observed that banking companies in Bangladesh emphasized on linguistic or written form than charts, graphs or pictures in reporting CSR activities to their stakeholders, and the study found no significant influence of the selected bank characteristics on the extent of CSR reporting. Moreover, the study observed significant impact of regulatory change on nature and extent of CSR reporting.

The study considered all the listed commercial banking companies in Bangladesh, and the annual report of 2011 was taken as the main source of data.

Among others, the implications of the study include the following. Banking companies are expected to get a real scenario of CSR reporting of the banking sector in Bangladesh and banking companies with poor CSR contribution expected to be motivated for contributing more in CSR activities. Government and other regulatory bodies can also get detailed information regarding CSR reporting practices for formulating guidelines in this regard.

This empirical study on the determinants of extent of CSR reporting using a larger number of expected CSR items contributes toward a better understanding of the CSR reporting practices of the banking companies in Bangladesh. The study used a new independent variable “CSR Expenditure” in justifying its influence on CSR reporting and identified the impact of regulatory change on CSR reporting. The study expects contributing in the enactment of more regulatory requirements for bringing the CSR reporting into a certain framework and encouraging in more CSR reporting in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Shari’ah compliance status of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh.

The research was based on both primary and secondary materials. The primary data were gathered through sample questionnaire survey and personal interviews by the researcher; the secondary data were obtained from Qur’an, Hadiths, different circulars/letters, manuals, research books and journals, annual reports, Web sites of the sample banks. Statistical tools and techniques like weighted average, percentage, SD, variance and correlation between Shari’ah violation score and bank-specific attributes were used applying statistical software Statistical Package for Social Science (version 17.0).

Shari’ah compliance status of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh is in a vulnerable condition, Shari’ah compliance status highly varies among the Islamic banks, and Shari’ah violation is high in investing activities because of lack of knowledge, lack of sincerity in complying Shari’ah, poor attention in Shari’ah audit and Shari’ah research and lack of strong Shari’ah supervisory board comprising full-time skillful members.

Among others, the major policy implications of this study are as follows: regulatory bodies and Shari’ah board members are expected to have guidelines from this study to find their limitations and to determine their future responsibilities; executives and Employees are expected to get the idea of present state of Shari’ah compliance and to identify their weaknesses in this regard; clients and other stakeholders are expected to have guidelines to choose the better Islamic banks to perform banking transactions; and the researchers in Islamic banking may usefully use the issues raised in this article for more comprehensive studies in Islamic banking and Shari’ah compliance.

The paper opens a new avenue in justifying the status of Shari’ah compliance with a new dataset and correlating Shari’ah violation score with bank-specific attributes.

This study aims to investigate the extent and trends of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and to analyze the determinants of the listed banks’ annual reports and websites in an emergent capital market, namely, Tunisia.

The authors examine the level of CSR disclosure by means of a manual content analysis where the sentence is used as the unit of the analysis. They use Branco and Rodrigues’ (2006 and 2008) index which includes 23 items. They focus on the annual reports of 11 Tunisian listed banks during the period from 2007 to 2012 and the information presented on their websites in December 2013. They use, also, regression analysis to identify the determinants of CSR disclosure used by Tunisian listed banks.

The results of the investigation show that Tunisian listed banks disclose CSR information primarily in a narrative form. Human resources are the main focus in the annual reports, whereas, on the websites, community involvement is the most widespread theme. With regard to the determinants, it appears that bank age, financial performance and state shareholding are the main factors that impact CSR disclosure in the Tunisian listed banks’ annual reports. Furthermore, this study finds a positive (negative) relationship between leverage (financial performance) and CSR disclosure in the banks’ websites. In this regard, the results show different determinants of CSR disclosure for the two supports. Moreover, bank size, foreign shareholding and the type of auditor are unrelated to the listed banks’ CSR disclosure either in their annual reports or on their websites.

The sample size is small; however, it consists of all the relevant Tunisian banks. Also, this study is subject to the limitations of using manual content analysis.

This study enables highlights the importance of CSR disclosure and its determinants for the Tunisian banks’ stakeholders (such as regulators, investors and managers).

The authors contribute to the scarce literature on CSR disclosure in financial institutions. It is the first study to investigate Tunisian listed banks’ CSR disclosure. It is a first attempt to show, also, how banks’ characteristics and banks’ ownership structures impact on their CSR disclosure in their annual reports and on their websites.

This study aims to investigate the extent and trend of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure by UAE listed banks and the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on this disclosure.

Content analysis of banks’ annual reports from 2009 to 2019 was applied to investigate the CSR disclosure level by constructing a disclosure index. Panel data regressions were applied to analyze the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on CSR disclosure.

UAE banks show an improving trend in the CSR disclosures. In addition, the board of directors and ownership structure are significantly and positively associated with the CSR disclosures. The results vary across the banking systems.

This study considers the extent of the CSR disclosure in UAE banks’ annual reports, and future research should consider more industries and communication channels.

This study sheds light on the extent of the CSR disclosure of UAE listed banks and assists UAE policymakers in implementing appropriate corporate governance mechanisms.

The findings provide banks with a better understanding of the benefits of strengthening corporate governance to improve their CSR disclosure.

This study contributes to the literature by constructing a more comprehensive disclosure index and examining the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on CSR disclosure by considering both the conventional and Islamic banking systems.

The economic consequence for adopting accounting standards is one of the growing and valuable topics in accounting research. The purpose of this paper is to address the question whether the adoption of Islamic standards that are issued by Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFIs) has a positive effect on the level of earnings management (EM) in the Islamic banks (IBs) setting. The authors measure, in general, the impact of AAOIFI for adopter and non-adopter banks. This paper furthermore investigates whether IBs adopting AAOIFI as compulsory or as voluntary adopters, in general, are being less engaged in earnings manipulation.

Using empirical data from 143 IBs across 26 different countries from 2014 to 2018, the paper uses a linear regression model and probit regression analysis that group the banks investigated in this paper into adopters and non-adopters. Additional probit regressions were performed to test to what extent the status of AAOIFI adoption (compulsory or voluntary adopters) has an impact of EM.

The adoption of AAOIFI generally is associated with a reduction in the EM level. Furthermore, adopter IBs for AAOIFI is least involved in EM as compared to non-adopter IBs. In addition, the findings of this paper indicate that IBs across countries that mandate AAOIFI standards are less engaged in earnings manipulation as compared to other IBs in countries that adopt AAOIFI as voluntary standards.

The results reported in this paper provide insights to central banks and regulators regarding the prominence of mandates of AAOIFI standards for IBs to enhance the trust level of stakeholders by reducing the unethical behavior (EM). In addition, this paper supports the applicability of AAOIFI standards for IBs rather than the conventional standards such as IFRS or local GAAP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the findings are unique at two levels. First, the paper provides evidence on the economic consequences of using AAOIFI in the context of IBs which was not explored by previous research. Second, the paper extends the investigation of the impact of AAOIFI adoption for adopters verses non-adopters, as well as for mandatory verses voluntary adoption of AAOIFI.

This paper aims to systematically review the existing studies for Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards which include different tracks of researches and then identify the gaps to propose opportunities for future research.

By adopting a systematic literature review approach, 46 papers that were published between 2000 and 2020 from 23 journals concerned with AAOIFI were selected for review and analysis.

The authors combine electronic searches to identify relevant studies using keywords such as “AAOIFI” or and “Islamic standards.” In light of the existing studies’ limitations, this paper derives and summarizes five leading future research tracks: identifies the research gaps in AAOIFI and then suggests that AAOIFI still requires more empirical analyses; identifies the alternative analytical methods as meta-analysis; identifies additional measurements for macro and microeconomics factors; identifies recent tracks as corresponding to Covid-19 pandemic; and future studies should consider the role of central banks and positive criticism for AAOIFI.

This analysis address the literature gaps on measuring compliance, determinants and consequences of AAOIFI adoption as this study serves as a guide for the researchers, regulators and Islamic financial institutions in research associated with this area. The findings would support AAOIFI, regulators and related authorities across jurisdictions with suggestions on improving the current AAOIFI practices.

This literature review is a historical record and guidance for researchers who seek to examine and explore several questions about AAOIFI. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that applies systematic literature review over AAOIFI research field.