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Purpose – This research analyses the stability of a number of banks operating in Malaysia by using descriptive statistical analysis based on internal variables. These include the characteristics of the bank, capital adequacy ratio, ratio of profitability, liquidity ratio and the ratio of bank operations.

Methodology/approach – Each bank’s stability is studied using z-score analysis. Data are sourced from the balance sheets and income statements of the banks from 2000 to 2011.

Findings – The results indicate that characteristics of a bank do influence a bank’s performance. There are significant differences in financial ratios between Islamic and conventional banking. Islamic banks provide a lower loan loss of capital to cover impaired loans than conventional banks. This provides high capital based on the mean value obtained. The capital ratio allows both sets of banks to meet the capital adequacy ratio set by the Central Bank of Malaysia. Meanwhile, in profitability ratios, conventional banks have higher returns on higher assets, whereas Islamic Banking has higher returns on higher equity. Only 8 Islamic banks and 11 conventional banks are highly stable banking institutions in Malaysia.

Originality/value – Islamic and conventional banking systems in Malaysia need further improvement to deal with unexpected economics crises and increased competition between the two. Hence, Islamic banking must be refined, especially for improving their stability to attract more investments for further development and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of Asian banks’ profitability with particular focus on the role of asset quality. This concern has been particularly important as the Basel III imposed more stringent requirements in banking regulation.

The paper uses fixed effect estimation for the panel data of the sample that consists of 947 banks from 12 Asian economies over the period of 2001-2015.

The authors find that poor asset quality (measured as impaired loans over gross loans) has a significant negative impact on banks’ profitability. Other bank-specific variables – capital adequacy, income diversification and operating inefficiency – are also important determinants. With regard to macroeconomic factors – real gross domestic product growth has most significant influence on the performance of banks.

The authors also find that the banks operating in non-advanced economies enjoy higher profit margin than banks operating in advanced economies.

Although the average asset quality in Asian banks improved over the years, governments could promote more competition, particularly in non-advanced economies. Banks in the region are recommended to diversify their income by avoiding over reliance on interest income.

Although there are prior studies that looked into asset quality, in particular with regard to the European and US experience, to the best of the authors’ knowledge there is no such study that explores cross-country Asian countries. In addition, the other primary determinants of Asian banks’ profitability are investigated. Further, the authors also looked in depth at the performance of the banks in advanced and non-advanced Asian economies.

This study aims to examine and compare the credit risk management (CRM) scenario of Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs) in Pakistan, keeping in view the phenomenal growth of Islamic banking and its future implications.

A sample of five CBs and four IBs was chosen out of the whole banking industry for the study. Secondary data obtained from the banks’ annual financial reports for 13 years, starting from 2004 to 2016, were analyzed. Multiple regression, correlation and descriptive analysis were used in the examination of the data.

The results show that loan quality (LQ) has a positive and significant impact on CRM for both IBs and CBs. Asset quality (AQ), on the other hand, has a negative impact on CRM in the case of IBs, but has a significantly positive relation with CRM in the case of CBs. The impact of 16 ratios measuring LQ and AQ have also been individually checked on CRM, by making use of a regression model using a dummy variable of financial crises for robust comparison among CBs and IBs. The model proved significant, and CRM performance of IBs was observed to be better than that of CBs. Moreover, the mean average value of financial ratios used as a measuring tool for these variables shows that the CRM performance of IBs operating in Pakistan was better than that of CBs over the period of the study.

The research findings are expected to facilitate bankers, investors, academics and policy makers to build a better understanding of CRM practices as adopted by CBs and IBs. The findings would be useful in formulating policy measures for the progress of the banking industry in Pakistan.

This research is unique in terms of its approach toward analyzing and comparing CRM performance of CBs and IBs. Such work has not been carried out before in the Pakistani banking industry.

This research aims to analyze and compare the effectiveness of liquidity risk management of Islamic and conventional banking in Egypt to ascertain which of the two banking systems are performing better.

A sample of six conventional banks (CBs) and two Islamic banks (IBs) in Egypt was selected. Using the liquidity ratios, the investigation involves analyzing the financial statements for the period of 2004-2011. The data were obtained from Bank scope database.

The research found that in Egypt, CBs perform better in terms of liquidity risk management than IBs. The liquidity risk management significant differences between IBs and CBs could be attributed more cash availability to CBs than to IBs, in addition, Egyptian Central Bank regulations on capital and liquidity requirements for IBs disconcert IBs’ performance.

This research facilitates the bankers, academician, scholars and bankers to have an alluded picture about Egyptian banking developments in liquidity risk management. The results can be used by bankers’ policy decision-makers to improve and enhance their consideration for liquidity risk management.

This research covers a period and a country that compares CBs’ and IBs’ liquidity risk management. Its value is attributed to the increasing differentiation between CBs and IBs.

This paper explores the effect of natural disasters on the profitability and solvency of US banks.

Employing a sample of 187 large-scale natural disasters that occurred in the United States between 2000 and 2014 and a sample of 2,891 banks, we examine whether and how disaster-related damages affect various measures of bank profitability and bank solvency. We differentiate between different types of banks (with local, regional and national operations) based on a breakdown of their state-level deposits and explore the reaction of these banks to damages weighted by the GDP of the states they operate in.

We find that natural disasters have a pronounced effect on the net-income-to-assets and the net-income-to-equity ratio of banks, as well as the banks' impaired loans and return on average assets. We also observe significant effects on the equity ratio and the tier-1 capital ratio (two solvency measures). Interestingly, the latter are positive for regional banks which appear to benefit from increased customer deposits related to safekeeping, government payments for post-disaster recovery, insurance payouts and decreased withdrawals, while they are significantly negative for banks that operate locally or nationally.

We contribute to the literature by offering various new insights regarding the effects natural disasters have on financial institutions. With climate change-driven natural disasters widely expected to increase both in terms of frequency and severity, their economic fallout is likely to impose an increasing burden on financial institutions. Large, nationally operating banks tend to be well diversified both geographically and in terms of their product offerings. Small, locally operating banks, however, are increasingly at risk – particularly if they operate in disaster-prone areas. Current banking regulations generally do not factor natural disaster risks into their capital requirements. To avoid the next big financial crisis, regulators may want to adjust their reserve requirements by taking this growing risk exposure into consideration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the voluntary disclosure of risk-related issues, with a focus on credit risk, in graphical reporting for listed banks in the major European economies. It aims to understand if banks portray credit risk-related information in graphs accurately and whether these graphs provide incremental, rather than replicative, information. It also investigates whether credit risk-related graphs provide a fair representation of risk performance or a more favourable impression than is warranted.

A graphical accuracy index was constructed. Incremental information was measured. A multi-level linear model investigated whether credit risk affects the quantity and quality of graphical credit risk disclosure.

Banks used credit risk graphs to provide incremental information. They were also selective, with riskier banks less likely to use risk graphs. Banks were accurate in their graphical reporting, particularly those with high levels of credit risk. These findings can be explained within an impression management perspective taking human cognitive biases into account. Preparers of risk graphs seem to prefer selective omission over obfuscation via inaccuracy. This probably reflects the fact that individuals, and by implication annual report’s users, generally judge the provision of inaccurate information more harshly than the omission of unfavourable information.

This study provides theoretical insights by pointing out the limitations of a purely economics-based agency theory approach to impression management.

The study suggests annual reports’ readers need to be careful about subtle forms of impression management, such as those exploiting their cognitive bias. Regulatory and professional bodies should develop guidelines to ensure neutral and comparable graphical disclosure.

This study provides a substantive alternative to the predominant economic perspective on impression management in corporate reporting, by incorporating a psychological perspective taking human cognitive biases into account.

This paper aims to derive determinants of loan loss provisions (LLPs) of commercial banks in Malaysia.

A single-stage panel data analysis multiple regression model that contains a mixture of quantitative and qualitative elements is used. The LLPs is a dependent variable or regressor, and non-performing loan (NPL), interest income, net profit, loans and advances and gross domestic product (GDP) are the independent variables or regressor/explanatory variables. The moderating variable is “credit risk management” (CRM) and the intervening variable is “relevance and faithful representation”.

This paper suggests in LLPs, NPLs, interest income, loans and advances, net profit and GDP, as well as the moderating effect of CRM and the intervening effect of relevance and faithful representation, are determinants of the LLPs. The moderating variable CRM strengthens the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The intervening variable “relevance and faithful representation” brings about a more accurate reporting on the levels of the LLPs.

The association of the factors is investigated further to detect possible effect of multicollinearity and research to better understand how banks manage their risk as the current investigation is limited to banks in Malaysia.

Loan loss provisioning issues of commercial banks in Malaysia are challenges for both regulators and the banking industry owing to the implementation of several new measures, the convergence with internationally accepted accounting standards and differences in loan grading and applications of different loan loss provisioning standards. Because of these challenges, Bank Negara Malaysia (the Central Bank of Malaysia) has tightened its supervision of commercial banks to ensure that banks are sufficiently and adequately provisioned. The banking sector plays a significant role, and it is important that it is resilient in the face of potential sources of systemic risk. And, like in other major ASEAN economies, the Malaysian’s financial system remains largely bank-dominated.

This study discovers whether Malaysian banks are sufficiently provisioned for the regional financial integration under the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) by the end of 2015, where several initiates have been initiated, including the harmonization of standards to encourage greater intra-regional investment flows and transactions and continued provisions of the much needed funds by the region’s private sectors.