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This paper aims to examine the compliance of disclosure with the financial accounting standards of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions’ (AAOIFI) related to Islamic financing products by Islamic banks in Bahrain and Qatar.

The study measures compliance using disclosure indexes. The disclosure indexes include the three financial accounting standards of Murabaha, Mudaraba and Musharaka. The data are collected from the annual reports of 24 Islamic banks in Bahrain and Qatar over a period of 2012-2015.

The paper found that Islamic banks in Bahrain and Qatar comply with AAOIFI financial accounting standards related to Murabaha, Mudaraba and Musharaka. However, there was a level of non-compliance in both countries. In addition, it found that the extent of compliance had increased over the 2012-2015 period. Also, the Murabaha standard had the highest mean of compliance. Moreover, the results showed that the Islamic banks in Qatar tend to have more compliance of overall Murabaha and Mudaraba disclosures compared to the Islamic banks in Bahrain.

The findings are preliminary and highlight that the issue is of high interest to Islamic banks and AAOIFI. Hence, it requires a detailed follow-up to form a complete picture that would assist AAOIFI and regulators gear their policies toward better quality disclosure by Islamic financial institutions. Even though the findings are encouraging, future research is recommended to enforce compliance with the AAOIFI financial accounting standards.

This is a pioneer empirical study that focuses on the level and trend of compliance with AAOIFI financial accounting standards related to the Islamic financing products of Murabaha, Mudaraba and Musharaka standards, especially in Qatar. Additionally, it is the first study comparing between the only two Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, i.e. Bahrain and Qatar, that mandatory apply the AAOIFI standards.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent of the contribution of the current Islamic financial system to society in terms of social responsibility (SR) required by the concept of social maslahah.

The paper adopts a critical analytic approach in considering the reasons of the failure of the social dimension of Islamic financial intermediation based on real figures of selected Islamic banks.

Concepts of SR and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are not enough to describe Islamic Banks' responsibilities. Also, this failure cannot be understood only with reference to the “external environment”, i.e. competition‐driven, capitalistic market conditions; but it is also closely related to the transformation of Islamic finance into an almost exclusively murabaha‐based Islamic banking, which promotes more individual maslahah than social maslahah. Compared to the murabaha, other product structures such as mudaraba and musharaka seem to be better instruments for expanding welfare and alleviating poverty.

There is a close relationship between Islamic banking contracts and social contribution of Islamic banks. This paper provides some practical solutions in this context. Also, empirical evidence derived from several conventional and Islamic banks supports these arguments.

This paper is the first to analyse the reasons for the social failure of Islamic Banks and to recommend substantial solutions in this scope and also offers practical help to practitioners of Islamic banking on the issue of social contribution of the Islamic banking business.

The paper seeks to examine the cultural factors that shaped the creation of one of the earliest Islamic banks, discussing the tensions that arise between religious and economic aims.

The paper is a case study of a historically significant institution. The information on which the paper is based was obtained through interviews with participants in the process being analysed, review of archived documents, and observation. Edgar Schein's theory of organisational culture and leadership is employed to provide theoretical structure for the analysis.

The paper shows that creating a new type of organisation – an Islamic bank – in Jordan required special legislation. A study of the development of this legislation reveals that the bank's founder needed to convince both the religious and political authorities and potential investors that the bank would comply with Shari'a principles while at the same time generating profitable business. The outcome was to validate transactions that were Shari'a‐compliant in form but similar in substance to those of conventional banks.

The paper examined one bank, and the findings are not necessarily representative of the experience of other Islamic financial institutions.

The research highlights the problems faced in establishing businesses that seek to follow the moral and economic teachings of Islam. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate about whether it is possible to establish genuinely Islamic businesses within a conventional economy.

This is the first detailed academic study of the creation of an Islamic financial institution to make use of a wide range of documentary and oral evidence, including interviews with insiders.

This paper aims to propose a new Islamic trade finance framework for Islamic financial institution (FIs) to support exports in Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) countries.

This paper introduces and proposes the recently developed Islamic finance methods of the supplier financing Wakala agreement, restricted Mudaraba and award-winning Export Credit Agency (ECA) export finance structures from the aspects of Shari’ah compliance, efficiency, simplicity for traders and risk management. This paper uses the approach of critical realism. The three-stratum approach is appropriate for Islamic product development, where the real, the actual and the empirical can be observed.

The author argues that the ECA export financing structures, or restricted Mudaraba if preferred, with an embedded supplier financing Wakala agreement can pave the way for Islamic FIs to support exporting companies. It is also concluded that development and support of the Takaful industry are vital for the success of Islamic export financing schemes because of its role in risk management.

Although very active in import financing with standard Murabaha contracts, Islamic FIs are still not able to meet the need for financing the expanding exports of OIC countries. Because of the difficulty in developing products that are both efficient and Shari’ah-compliant, export financing is the most controversial issue for the Islamic trade finance industry. Existing or proposed export finance products are heavily criticised by concerned Muslims, as they include bill discounting, akin to factoring in conventional finance. This paper introduces methods aimed at overcoming the inadequacy of existing structures.

Islamic microfinance institutions (IsMFIs) have used diverse models and tools, as they seek to provide financial and non-financial support to the farming communities. A majortity of IsMFIs focus on provision of micro-credit to farmers alone as a means to enhance food security, following an approach similar to that of the conventional microfinance institutions. Others adopt a “finance-plus” approach and provide support in a multitude of areas other than finance, such as, technology, production, marketing, business development, capacity building, and thus, ultimately steering the project to success. The purpose of this paper is to examine the models and tools of Islamic agricultural finance for the rural poor that display major variations and draw lessons from a policy perspective.

The study undertakes a comprehensive review of the principles, modes and models of Islamic agricultural finance targeted at small-holder farmers. It uses a case study method to review several winning initiatives by IsMFIs across the globe. It highlights the various risks and challenges confronting the projects and how the same are sought to be mitigated.

Islamic agricultural finance for the rural poor involves a range of modes, mechanisms and institutional structures. Credit-based and sharing-based modes work well under specific conditions and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for financing the rural poor. Case studies of successful initiatives reveal that composite models involving the integration of philanthropy-based, not-for-profit as well as for-profit components may provide ideal solutions. Additional factors critical for success include provision of safety nets, involvement of community, non-financial support in a multitude of areas other than finance, such as, technology, procurement, production, marketing, business development and institutional capacity building.

The paper addresses a fundamental issue in financing the poor farmers in Muslim societies – whether to opt for a credit-based approach that would ensure greater outreach or to go for a holistic intervention involving financing of the entire value chain. The findings are based on personal interaction of the author with professionals directly involved in the projects.

This paper aims to explain the “murabaha syndrome” of Islamic banks. It further attempts to offer alternatives for the expansion of profit and loss sharing (PLS)-based financing.

Audited financial statements of 18 Islamic banks in the GCC countries are analyzed to assess the financing structures of banks. Moreover, additional data about financing pattern of Islamic banks in other Muslim majority countries are collected from the Islamic finance literature. A comparative analysis is offered to examine the financing structures of Islamic banks.

The paper confirms murabaha (mark-up financing) concentration of Islamic banks. About 90 per cent of the total financing are concentrated on murabaha, which is the result of existing institutional underpinnings. Islamic banks would logically be involved with PLS-based financing only limitedly unless the current governing institutions are changed. Entrepreneurs’ financing needs based on PLS contracts should be catered by venture capital, whereas micro-finance enterprises can meet the demand for funds of marginal clients.

PLS investment in the portfolio of Islamic banks would result in higher risk and uncertainty. Ambiguity, or its equivalent uncertainty, is prohibited in Islam. This is a dilemma which the existing literature does not sufficiently explain.

Ideally, Islamic banks should practice PLS-based financing; otherwise, their raison d’être would be difficult to justify. Islamic finance literature does not shed sufficient analytical lights in explaining Islamic banks’ preference of mark-up financing to PLS-based financing. Moreover, strategies to ameliorate this condition have largely remained unexplored.

Motivated by massive bank failures during the financial crisis and the remarkable resilience of Islamic banks (IBs), this paper aims to analyze the interdependencies between asset/liability portfolio choices of IBs in emerging markets.

The authors collect data from the financial statements of IBs in the Middle East and North Africa region and Southeast Asia during the period 2002-2012. Using canonical correlation analysis, the authors investigate the degree of interdependencies between the asset/liability accounts unique to IBs and how their ALM models work at times of economic turmoil.

IBs tend to make decisions on sources of finance based on their asset portfolio choices. The interdependencies are stronger for small banks. IBs direct more of their investments to risk-mitigating instruments that share the risk with the borrower/client and are based on the purchase and sale of real goods rather than financial instruments. Additionally, banks tend to rely less on equity to finance their investments during economic boom and increase their equity holdings during economic bust.

This paper contributes to research on an under-researched, globally growing finance sector. It extends research on ALM while providing novel evidence using non-standardized asset/liability accounts unique to IBs.

The analysis of unique accounts has not been discussed in prior studies, which mainly used standardized account balances to compare Islamic and conventional banks. Moreover, the resilience of IBs and whether their ALM models are superior at times of turmoil has remained a black box. The results of this study are relevant to unravel this unanswered question.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an extension of a previous study by the author into compliance by Islamic banks in Bahrain with accounting standards issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

A number of compliance indexes are constructed to better understand compliance by the sample banks. The use of multiple indexes addresses methodological shortcomings identified in the previous study.

Compliance is found to be higher for some Islamic issues than for others. In a relative sense, compliance is found to be similar to that for the region with standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

The sample is limited to Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain. This is necessitated by the lack of adaptation elsewhere. The relatively high compliance found in Bahrain suggests broader adoption would be successful and would contribute to the overall regulation of the Islamic financial sector.

The AAOIFI has existed for over 20 years, but little empirical research had been conducted into compliance with the standards developed by this body. This paper, along with the previous study by the author, helps address this gap.

The skyrocketing rise of Islamic banking is noticeable in not only Islamic countries but also non-Islamic countries during the past few decades. Many conventional banks have started Islamic banking generally by maintaining separate branches/windows and occasionally by pursuing a complete conversion strategy. Following the global trend, two of the full-fledged Islamic banks adopted a conversion strategy consecutively in 2004 and 2008 in Bangladesh. The number of the conversion case is still limited. At this backdrop, this study aims to identify the incentives in the conversion strategy into Islamic banks.

Using the secondary data from the annual reports of the sample banks for both pre- and post-conversion periods, this study adopts the “case study” approach upon the comparison with the performance of conventional banks and other types of Islamic banks.

It is apparent that higher reserve requirement for conventional banks provides the incentive for the conversion into Islamic banks given with less reserve requirement. Under the protective regulatory framework, these converted Islamic banks may have enjoyed the rent for learning during the initial phase after the conversion, even though majority of the funds of these banks are collected from high-cost mudaraba time deposits. Basically, the credit strategy of the converted banks has been quite conservative, resulting in the concentrated portfolio selection on the asset-backed financing. However, the recent engagement of these banks in the Shari'ah-based participatory financing makes their performance a bit vulnerable.

It is becoming difficult to justify a protective regulatory framework for incubating infant Islamic banks if the rent for learning given under the framework would not encourage them to challenge and absorb the risk and uncertainty associated with Shari’ah-based participatory financing. The current mode of profit–loss sharing (PLS) makes it difficult for the regulators to create an appropriate incentive for Islamic banks to challenge the equity-based financing.

The number of the conversion case is limited. Less has been done to investigate the reasons why the conventional banks opt for the conversion into Islamic banks, particularly in Bangladesh.