Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the income structure of Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and to explore the effect of the diversification of banks' earning on risks that may harm these latter.

Using data from 2002‐2008 for 42 Islamic banks, this article provides descriptive and analytical analysis and multiple regression equations.

This article reveals that greater reliance on the income share of the profit‐loss‐sharing products is associated with higher risk and higher insolvency risk for both listed Islamic banks and non‐listed Islamic banks. However, no effect has been observed between the operation income of non‐profit‐losses‐sharing products and risk levels. That is why listed banks prefer to invest less in non‐profit‐loss‐sharing products than in profit‐loss‐sharing products.

Financial regulators in emerging Islamic financial market should help Islamic banks to find equilibrium between the expansion of the Islamic financial market and respect for the raison d'être of Islamic finance: the profit and loss sharing mechanisms.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first article that empirically tests why Islamic banks prefer to invest less in profit‐loss‐sharing products. Also, this article contributes to studying the relationship between Islamic finance and risk.

This paper aims to investigate the adequacy of regulatory capital funds through loss provisioning policies because of worsening credit quality associated with distressed financial conditions. A financial distress occurs when banks have difficulty in honoring financial commitments. This paper is expected to unveil how the provisioning mechanisms can address concerns associated with pro cyclicality of regulatory capital funds requirements, and how the banks behave in distressed financial conditions to share risks. The pro cyclicality of regulatory capital funds is the effect of various components of the financial system that aggravates the economic cycle such as during the expansion of the economy when banks are able to provide more loans and meet regulatory capital requirements with ease, while during the contraction of the economic cycle, can lead to deterioration of asset quality, and the resultant need to make loss provisions and recognize impairment. In turn, the situation puts further pressures on the capital requirements held by banks and their risk-sharing behavior. The paper analyzes a sample of Islamic banks in Malaysia.

By estimating credit risk-related information through loss provisioning policies, the paper uses an unbalanced panel data on all Islamic banks in the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia from 2003 to 2014. The association consists of full-fledged Islamic banks and several foreign-owned entities.

The paper findings support that Islamic banks during observed period of distressed financial conditions were less discouraged to increase their regulatory capital funds to share risks. Intuitively, they were more encouraged to engage in risk-shifting behavior. Also, the risk-shifting behavior was found to have a significantly high potential in foreign-owned Islamic banks than in domestic Islamic banks.

Although the study is based on a sample of Islamic banks in Malaysia, the findings suggest targeted interventions aimed at discouraging risk shifting or transfer of risks in an interest-free Islamic financing.

The outcome of this paper has practical implications for Islamic banks to build a buffer of capital funds to face downward pressures during heightened financial uncertainties while serving as protection to depositors. Moreover, this study has practical implications for shareholders to avail themselves the benefits of high investment accounts financing. The Islamic banks can continue to play their role in promoting inclusive growth, reducing inequality and accelerating poverty reduction.

Although the current study is based on a sample of Islamic banks in Malaysia, the finding suggests that the extent of risk shifting was significantly more incentivized among the foreign-owned rather than the domestic Islamic banks. This information can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at discouraging risk shifting or transfer of risks in an interest-free Islamic financing.

This paper is the first that investigates on adequacy of regulatory capital funds of Islamic banks through loss provisioning policies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical information about the past loss experience in major US crop insurance programs, and documents the impacts of ratings changes through time on the premiums and exposure to participants. The losses are also examined within the structure of the current SRA to identify impacts on insurance companies and the government by fund designation.

- The study uses RMA Summary of Business data and methods consistent with the use of loss-cost ratemaking to analyze loss performance across years with different starting prices and volatilities. Additionally, the RMA premium quoting system was replicated across years with the ability to adjust only one feature at a time to isolate the impacts of changes in individual rating elements from changes in market conditions. Tabulations are provided in map and table form to present the loss ratios through time, in aggregate across time, and within each of the possible funds in which exposures are held. Additionally, the tools developed allow a direct tabulation of the farmer-level premium impacts of individual changes in the policy premium system, and of changing conditions over time.

Corn and soybeans represent dominant shares of aggregate policy premiums and liability, and also are the crops that underwent the greatest degree of revision in rates over the recent past both due to rate study implications, and to loss rate experience. Despite commonly made arguments that payments associated with the drought of 2012 “more than wiped out all historic gains,” it appears that insurance worked very much as intended and that the loss ratios through time are within reasonable ranges of targets. Fund designation, and the separation under the most recent SRA of Group 1 and Group 2 states substantially dampened the loss sharing and ability to capture gains by private companies, and leads to fairly low rates of return on a pure fund-loss sharing basis for insurance companies. Finally, despite the extreme losses of 2012, the aggregate performance of corn relative to the remainder of the program exhibits lower than average loss rates both in aggregate and on a scale-adjusted basis.

The study provides an important means to isolate and assess implications of rate changes, and to associate causes of losses with rate charges. Additionally, the structure of the SRA, and possible future versions of the SRA are informed by both the aggregate, and the normalized performance results provided. And, the relative performance of major row, crops even with recent extreme losses, appears appropriate or positive to insurance companies after considering the impacts of the SRA on company exposure. In total, the evidence points toward appropriate movement toward target overall loss ratios in the US crop insurance program.

This paper provides an extensive empirical evaluation of ratings for major crop insurance policies and provides a unique means to decompose sources of changes in premiums and rates across locations and through time. It also provides an evaluation of the performance of crop insurance post-SRA in a manner that allows both totals and scale-adjusted performance to be assessed.

The purpose of this study is to understand the profit-sharing structure at equilibrium of the two-tier mudharaba contract in a pure Islamic banking system and then in a dual banking system.

This paper aims to better understand the profit-sharing structure at the equilibrium of the two-tier mudharaba. It first assumes a purely Islamic banking system and then introduces a risk-free asset to simulate trade-off opportunities in a dual banking system.

First, by using a model inspired from a neoclassical framework and assuming that the Islamic banks are the only channel for financing the economy, the results suggest that the profit-sharing structure built up by the three parties, the bank, the depositor and the entrepreneur, at the time of signing the Mudharaba contract has to be drawn up in the way that, at the ex post, the remuneration of each necessary production factor, capital and labor, should equal its marginal productivity. Second, the authors relax the hypothesis of a purely Islamic financial system and introduced a risk-free asset in favor of the depositor. Thereby, the authors are able to apprehend the financial balance of the two-tier mudharaba contract by simulating the trade-offs that can occur in a dual banking system. The findings suggest that the profit-sharing structure is not the same whether we are at the level of bank assets (bank–entrepreneur relationship) or liabilities (bank–depositor relationship). For the asset side, an increase (respectively decrease) in the expected profit of the mudharaba implies a decrease (respectively increase) in the share of the bank, whereas an increase (respectively decrease) in the return of the risk-free asset and/or the risk underlying the project implies an increase (respectively decrease) of the bank’s share in the expected profit.

Theoretical work that has studied the determinants of the ratio of profit sharing between capitalists and entrepreneurs in the context of mudharaba has omitted that this contract should be assessed at both asset and liability sides of the bank. To overcome this theoretical gap, this paper aims to better understand the structure of profit sharing at the equilibrium of the two-tier mudharaba, while taking into account the contractual specificities between the different stakeholders.

This paper aims to explain a new system of accounting for partnership financing that applies in Rastin profit and loss sharing banking. In this system, the interest rate is not used in calculations and accounting, and instead, the “time value” of capital based on the amount and duration of the partnership is used.

Rastin Partnership Accounting principles have been founded on off-balance-sheet items and on the basis of the institutions’ obligations to the depositors and receivers of financial resources, and they are in compliance with the nature of the financial intermediary activity (a partnership of depositor in the yields of the fund receiver via the bank).

The distribution of profit among stakeholders (including workforce and capital owners) is accomplished according to the share of each beneficiary in the created value added. In this regard, Euler’s theorem, as the best mathematical-economic innovation for distribution of income is applied.

This system is novel, and it is required to be more elaborated for further practical development and adjustment.

In this accounting system, the return of the partnership is distributed among sharers based on the amount and duration of their partnership. The penalty for delay in payment is calculated from the amount of the incurred loss due to negligence or blameworthy of the undertaker and not upon a penalty interest rate.

Interest rate as an essential factor in conventional accounting is not usable in Islamic banking and other similar institutions that work based on partnership, such as mutual funds and saving and loan associations. The proposed system removes this shortage and is fairer than the conventional accounting.

Approach of this accounting system is fully different from the conventional accounting because of intrinsic characteristics of the intermediary role of financial partnership institutions and Islamic banks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the social welfare concepts of Takaful and Tabarru’ (donations) as tools to guarantee deposits in the Islamic banking industry, and the effect of such practice on the concept of risk sharing in Islamic finance.

The study critically analyzes the Mudaraba contract used by Islamic banks to mobilize funds, the use of Profit Equalization Reserves and Investment Risk Reserves, the use of other income smoothing techniques and the insurance of Islamic banks’ by regulatory agencies in some countries based on the Takaful and Tabarru’ concepts.

This paper shows that Islamic banks are increasingly using the concepts of Takaful and Tabarru’, which are intended originally for social welfare, as tools to justify the move to more guaranteed-in-substance type of deposits, and hence, more risk shifting rather than risk sharing in the Mudaraba contract. This use, is argued, moves Islamic banking towards more market-oriented, but less Shariaa-compliant in substance.

This papers examined the behaviour of Islamic financial institutions and Islamic scholars based on the available literature. No empirical analysis was conducted.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the substance of Islamic banking transactions and the risk shifting inherent in such transactions. Furthermore, it is the first study that examines the extent of utilizing different social welfare concepts to legalize – from Shariaa perspective – Islamic banking transactions.

This study aims to explore how teachers changed literature instruction in English language arts (ELA) classrooms following personal loss, and identifies factors influencing those changes. The author argues teachers regulated their responses to literature according to emotional rules they perceived to be associated with the teaching profession. Understanding teachers’ responses helps educators, teacher educators and educational researchers consider what conditions and supports may be required for teachers and students to share emotions related to loss in authentic ways in ELA classrooms.

To examine changes teachers made in literature instruction following personal loss, the author conducted a thematic analysis of 80 questionnaire responses.

The author found teachers changed literature instruction related to three areas: teachers’ relationship to students, teachers’ instruction surrounding texts and teachers’ reader responses. Responses highlighted how teachers adhered to emotional rules, including a perception of teachers as authorities and caretakers of children. Teachers considered literature instruction to require maintaining focus on texts, and avoided emotional response unless it aided textual comprehension.

Scholars have argued for literature instruction inclusive of both loss experiences and also emotional response, with particular focus on students’ loss experiences. This study focuses on teachers’ experiences and responses to literature following loss, highlighting factors that influence, and at times inhibit, teachers’ authentic sharing of experiences and emotions. The author argues teachers require support to bring loss experiences into literature instruction as they navigate emotional response within the relational dynamics of the classroom.

This study aims to explore the governance practices of profit and loss sharing (PLS) financing in connection to the socio-economic development objective of the Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

The study context included IFIs from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A two-stage research methodology was used. In the first stage, top ten IFIs – three Islamic commercial banks, three Islamic rural banks and four Islamic micro finance institutions – were considered for in-depth interviews. Formal interview protocol was followed to record and transcribe interviews. In the second stage, a questionnaire survey considered 26 IFIs. Unit of measurement was individuals working at the mid and top level from the selected organisations.

The governance process of providing and managing PLS financing involves several critical factors, such as the financing duration, instalment timing, contract approval and cost, basis of sharing, risk management, customer empowerment and Sharīʿah compliance. Contrary to the existing belief, the authors found that PLS financing is primarily available for shorter period of time (three years) and it is unavailable for start-ups. Also, newer IFIs rely less on PLS financing than the older IFIs. In addition to worrying about the higher risk of return, IFIs considered government regulation on PLS to be tighter in terms of provision and rescheduling.

This study is limited to investigating IFIs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This limitation is covered by taking samples from three types of IFIs.

For IFI practitioners, these findings are expected to improve their confidence in undertaking more progressive efforts in adopting governance policies that contribute to greater socio-economic justice.

If the governance good practices are implemented by all IFIs, a higher degree of social welfare and customer awareness can be achieved.

Across all types of IFIs, this study’s results confirm that PLS is less preferred for long-term and start-up financing. These findings should be the ingredients to push research on PLS further, as these findings grossly violate the theory. Fulfilling these gaps could strengthen the nexus between PLS and socio-economic justice.

This paper aims to draw on the bank rent approach to evaluate the existing pattern of financing of Islamic banks and to propose a fairly new conceptualization of Islamic bank rent.

The bank rent theory is adopted to generate the theoretical underpinnings of the issue. After that, empirical evidence from the banking sector of Bangladesh is used to support the arguments.

Repeated transactions under murabaha are observed in the Islamic banking sector of Bangladesh. The asset-based financing gives the Bangladeshi Islamic banks relatively higher Islamic bank rent opportunity for protecting their “franchise value” as Shari’ah-compliant lenders, while responding to the periodic volatility in transaction costs of profit-and-loss sharing.

The bank rent approach suggests that the murabaha syndrome can be ironically justifiable. On the other hand, the current profit-and-loss sharing risk provides an idea of the difficulty in assuming the participatory financing with higher credit risk in practice. Islamic scholars and the regulatory authority need to design an appropriate financial architecture which can create different levels of rent opportunities for Islamic banks to avail the benefit from the variety of Islamic financing as declared by Islamic Shari’ah.

This paper introduces a fairly new concept of “Islamic bank rent” to make sense of the murabaha syndrome. This approach also contributes to clarifying the unique risk and cost to be compensated with the spreads that Islamic banks are expected to earn. To draw empirical evidence, as far as it could be ascertained, the data of both Islamic banks and conventional banks with Islamic banking windows/branches are used for the first time.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of risk sharing and non-risk sharing instruments on both the profitability of Islamic banks and the economic growth of the country. This study also aims to improve the profit and loss sharing-based asset growth of Islamic banks.

The data for this study are obtained from the annual reports of all Islamic banks from Bangladesh using Bank scope database and annual report for the period of 1983–2014. The research uses Autoregressive Distributive Lag approach.

The findings reveal that risk sharing instruments are positively related to profitability and the economic growth of the country. This study also finds that non-risk sharing instruments play a predominant role in the profitability of the Islamic bank but are negatively related to the economic growth of the country.

Banks and other financial institutions need to pay greater attention to systemic risk created by risk transfer and apply risk sharing methods of financing more vigorously than has hitherto been the case.

This study will also contribute to the literature as relatively few Islamic financial literatures deal with the relationship between equity financing and profitability which may make a strong contribution to the area of Islamic finance.