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The purpose of this study is to understand and evaluate the roles and functions of the Sharīʿah committee (SC) of Islamic banks (IBs) in Malaysia and to recommend a resetting of the scope of responsibilities to enable the SC to effectively respond to current market needs.

A Likert-type survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to all available SC members through e-mails and online surveys as well as self-administered questionnaires. At the end of the survey, 87 useable questionnaires were collected from 161 SC members, representing a 54% response rate.

This study finds that most SC members have the necessary Sharīʿah qualification, and they are mostly academics with doctoral degrees. However, there is a noticeable lack of diversity in the composition of experts in the committees. Respondents indicate that their main functions are to ensure Sharīʿah compliance of bank operations and product offerings. This is of course consistent with their stated functions as outlined in the Bank Negara Malaysia's Sharīʿah Governance Policy Document (BNM, 2019). The study finds that SCs are not involved in product development, nor responsible for financial performance. Respondents indicate three ways to enhance the role of SCs: improving banking knowledge of the members, more engagement with the board of directors (BoDs) and broadening the functions of SCs.

This study highlights two policy implications. First, there is a strategic need for IBs to consider having a diversity of expertise in the SCs while maintaining the Sharīʿah experts as core members. Second, this study recommends a reset of the scope of duties of the SC to include three new areas: risk management, product development and financial performance.

This study evaluates the current functions of the SC of IBs in Malaysia and provides suggestions for improvement in the composition of the committee and in the scope of duties of SCs based on contemporary needs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of the board and risk committee in respect of risk-taking in conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia.

This study uses unbalanced panel data for 15 conventional and 14 Islamic banks over the period 2007–2016. The generalised least squares random effects technique is applied.

The evidence shows that independent directors and frequency of board meetings reduce risk-taking but that the number of directors with finance and banking experience and those with multiple directorships tend to increase risk-taking. The findings also indicate that the size of the risk committee, the number of directors on the risk committee and the appointment of a designated risk officer tends to reduce risk-taking in banks. By comparing conventional and Islamic banks, the findings show that Islamic banks have lower exposure to portfolio risk but higher insolvency risk.

The findings in this study suggest that the board and risk committee have an impact on bank risk-taking. The implications for management include having more independent directors, fewer directors with multiple board memberships and having an efficient risk committee in order to reduce risks. Regulators should look into the issue of multiple directorships as this is positively related to risk-taking. Islamic banks should expand their operations as our findings indicate that bigger banks are better able to manage risk.

This study covers bank governance and risk committee, which are crucial in influencing the risk-taking behaviour of conventional and Islamic banks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of risk shifting behavior in bonds and sukuk. The examination is significant, as economists and scholars identify risk shifting as the primary cause of the global financial crisis. Yet, the dangers of this debt-financing feature are largely ignored – one needs to only witness the record growth of global debt even after the global financial crisis.

To identify the signs of risk shifting existence in the corporations, this paper compares each corporation’s operating risk before and after issuing debt. Operating risk or risk of a firm’s activities is measured using the volatility of the operating earnings or coefficient variation of earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Using EBITDA as the variable offers one distinct advantage to using asset volatility as previous research has – EBITDA can be extracted directly from firms’ accounting data and is not model-specific.

Risk shifting can be found in not only the bond system but also the debt-based sukuk system – a noteworthy finding because sukuk, supposedly in a different class from bonds, have been criticized in some quarters for their apparent similarity to bonds. On the other hand, this study thus shows that equity feature, when it is embedded in bonds (as in convertible bonds) or when a financial instrument is based purely on equity (as in equity-based sukuk), the incentive to shift the risk can be mitigated.

Global awareness of the dangers of debt should be increased as a means of reducing the amount of debt outstanding globally. Although some regulators suggest that sukuk replace debt, they must also be aware that imitative sukuk pose the same threat to efforts to avoid debt. In short, efforts to ensure future financial stability cannot address only debts or bonds but must also address those types of sukuk that mirror bonds in their operation. In the wake of the global financial crisis, amid the frantic search for ways of protecting against future financial shocks, this analysis aims to help create future stability by encouraging market players to avoid debt-based activities.

This paper differs from the previous literature in two important ways, viewing risk shifting behavior not only in relation to debt or bonds but also when set against debt-based sukuk, which has been subjected to similar criticism. Indeed, to the extent that debts and bonds encourage risk shifting behavior and threaten the entire financial system, so, too, can imitation sukuk or debt-based sukuk. Second, this paper is unique in exploring the ability of equity features to curb equity holders’ incentive to engage in risk shifting behavior. Such an examination is necessary for the wake of the global financial crisis, for researchers and economists now agree that risk shifting must be a controlled behavior – and that one way of controlling risk shifting is by implementing the risk sharing feature of equity-based financing into the financial system.

This paper seeks to examine the operation of an Islamic inter‐bank money market (IIMM), within a dual banking system.

The paper describes Malaysia's Islamic IIMM. It then examines some of the key risks associated with money market functions. An empirical examination of the extent to which yields in the IIMM are correlated with conventional money market yields is undertaken. The implication of this on interest‐rate exposure for the Islamic financial sector is discussed. Finally, the paper looks at some of the challenges and offers conclusions.

The paper argues that even though an Islamic money market operates in an interest‐free environment and trades Shariah‐compliant instruments, many of the risks associated with conventional money markets, including interest‐rate risks are relevant. The empirical evidence, based on Malaysian data, points to Islamic money market profit rates/yields that are highly correlated and move in tandem with conventional money market rates. Given the dynamics of fund flows and cross‐linkages, an IIMM operating within a dual banking system cannot sterilize itself from interest‐rate risks. In fact, the paper argues that such an IIMM may actually enhance interest‐rate risk transmission to the Islamic banking sector, by providing additional channels of transmission. Ironical as it may be, the operations of an IIMM in a dual banking system may serve to bring the Islamic banking sector into closer orbit with the conventional sector.

The paper offers insights into the IIMM, focusing on Malaysia.

This paper aims to examine the feasibility of a Common Currency Area (CCA) among ten MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Countries. The ten sample countries constitute the six GCC Countries and the four Agadir nations.

Macroeconomic data for the 34‐year‐period 1970‐2003 is used. Feasibility is examined by analyzing the symmetry of response of countries within each group to a common external shock. The impulse response functions (IRF) from a Vector Autoregression Model is used. The strength of linkages within each economic bloc was examined using Pearson pairwise correlation and variance decomposition.

Among GCC countries, the results show the existence of strong linkages among the monetary variables, signifying strong monetary sector integration. Such integration however is lacking where the real sector is concerned. Despite the symmetry seen in the impulse response functions, variance decomposition showed the absence of any meaningful influence of countries on each other within the bloc. Amongst the Agadir nations, the results show no correlation in real output growth, some correlation among monetary variables but no symmetry whatsoever in response to external shocks. The variance decomposition too did not show mutual influence intra group.

The lack of real sector integration will present a challenge to GCC's desired goal of a CCA by 2010. The Agadir nations appear to be simply a loosely knit economic grouping with little integration of any kind. Thus, hopes of a CCA among Agadir nations is far too premature.

The paper concludes that the GCC is, at present, a quasi‐monetary bloc with little real sector integration.

This study aims to explore the evolution of the Islamic capital market (ICM) from the perspective of research publications.

A bibliometric analysis was applied based on selected publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database from 2000 to 2021. The study adopted VOSviewer software which was developed by Leiden University.

This study has some implications that need urgent action. Firstly, there are some areas that have received little attention among researchers, although they are relevant to the industry, for instance, in fintech and blockchain in ICM. Secondly, the inconsistent frequency of publications in some niche areas may suggest that there are unprecedented events that hinder further research; probably, the researcher may anticipate more information and progress in the industry. Thirdly, the need to strengthen the collaboration between industry and academia to advance research.

This study considered only the WoSCC database. The provider of WoSCC is Clarivate (formerly known as Thomson Reuters), where access to publications is limited to institutional subscribers. The implications of this study are to identify and propose future research trends in the field of ICM.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is among the pioneer studies in analysing bibliometric focusing on ICM. Previous research has focused on Islamic finance and banking, and not specifically on ICM. Accordingly, this study sheds light on research gaps in ICM.

The purpose of this study is to provide quantitative information about the development of Islamic financial management literature. For this purpose, it is aimed to draw attention to the development of this field by revealing the literature gap in the field of Islamic financial management.

In this study, the document analysis method is used and the Web of Science (WOS) site is used to obtain the desired data. The time range of the study covers the years 1980–2023/January. The results obtained from the scans were analyzed by the bibliometric analysis method. The data obtained within the scope of the study are classified and analyzed using the VOSviewer program, which is one of the many software developed for scientific mapping analysis. The obtained data are presented in a certain order with the visual mapping method.

In the analyses made, bibliometric analysis based on document review and including the subject of “Islamic financial management” in the WOS database between the relevant years has not been used in any study, which points to an important gap in the literature. However, 3,022 studies on “Financial management” and 1,830 studies on “Islamic finance” have been identified. Although there is no data on “Financial Management”, the subjects of “Islamic finance” and “Financial management” related to the subject have been evaluated in terms of countries, the most publishing organizations, authors, publications and word–word groups, using the bibliometric analysis method, as well as making numerical and visual evaluations. These studies show that an infrastructure to include the subject of “Islamic financial management” has not been formed in the literature.

This study points to an important gap in the literature. The subjects of “Islamic finance” and “Financial management” have been sufficiently covered in the literature separately. By combining this knowledge with new studies there appears an environment where original studies on the subject of “Islamic financial management” can be made and this study is aimed to shed light on this virgin area.

In the literature bibliometric analysis based on document review including the subject of “Islamic financial management” has not been used in any study. To the best of the author’s knowledge this study is the first in the literature to address the related issue and with it an important gap in the literature has been identified and an important case that will be a source for future studies has been revealed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that determine rural households’ access to finance provided by Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Indonesia.

A two-year panel data set with logistic regression is used to identify the determinants of access to finance by rural households. The study sample comprises of 289 Islamic MFIs’ clients and 140 non-clients from East Java, Indonesia. The clients consist of 111 rural households with profit and loss sharing (PLS) schemes, 162 clients with non-profit and loss sharing (non-PLS) schemes and 16 clients with both schemes.

The empirical results show that age, gender and income influence rural households to access finance provided by Islamic MFIs. The results show an increase in age and income increase the respondents’ likelihood to access finance. Further, male respondents are more likely to access finance from Islamic MFIs than females.

The empirical analysis is limited to data obtained from East Java province in Indonesia, and other provinces may show different results. However, this study is among the few studies that investigate access to finance from Islamic MFIs based on PLS and non-PLS schemes.

The novelty of this study lies in the unique financing accessibility between PLS and non-PLS schemes in Islamic MFIs. This study will be an important addition to the emerging literature on Islamic microfinance.

The purpose of this study is to provide quantitative information on the growth of Islamic finance literature. The study focused on publishing trends, countries producing research on Islamic finance, key authors, major contributing organizations, authorship patterns, keywords and articles with the highest citations.

Bibliometric analysis is applied to analyse the growth and publishing trends in Islamic finance literature. The Web of Science (WoS) database was used to extract bibliometric data covering the period 1939–2019 for Islamic finance literature.

The study finds that Islamic finance research has gained remarkable momentum in the literature. However, such growth is largely manifested in Malaysia because of a conducive atmosphere for this type of research. Interestingly, the study finds that the three most productive journals are located in the UK and Malaysia, while Professor M. Kabir Hassan from the University of New Orleans, the USA appears to head the list of authors with 23 publications on Islamic finance.

This study provides up-to-date literature on the current state of Islamic finance in the world; as a result, it supports the development of policies by the Islamic finance industry. The findings of the study also serve as a reference point for Islamic finance training and educational institutions.

Islamic finance is an emerging financial discipline; as such, there is a need for more awareness of this financial system in the world. Muslim-majority countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pakistan and Bahrain, have to include Islamic finance in their curriculum and establish research institutions and research journals. In addition, Arabic language journals should be indexed in WoS and/or Scopus to provide a high-quality publication platform. This study provides a more comprehensive bibliometric analysis on the growth of Islamic finance literature (1939–2019) in the WoS database; most of the prior studies have covered relatively few areas of focus and a lower range of years in some cases.