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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main components of the regulatory framework for Islamic banking in Mauritius. This small island state of the Indian Ocean aspires to host Islamic banking products while diversifying the range of financial services offered within its hybrid jurisdiction despite having a minority Muslim population. The study also aims at drawing some comparisons with the well-established regulatory framework that applies to conventional banking.

In this qualitative analysis of the regulatory framework of Islamic banking in Mauritius, the doctrinal approach is adopted. This method relies principally on a scrutiny of the provisions of the law and delves into the primary and secondary sources of law guiding Islamic banking practices in the Mauritian jurisdiction.

The research study concludes that, with the view of encouraging investors into Islamic banking, policymakers took some regulatory initiatives but these remained timid. These initiatives relied too often on borrowing from the regulatory framework in place for conventional banking practices instead of regulating the area within its own precepts. Prospects for expanding Islamic banking exist but will require more audacious regulatory steps so as to secure the environment within which Islamic banking is to flourish. In the meantime, the industry is in a status quo position with no further legal action currently being envisaged to re-launch this area.

This research study is among the first generated specifically on the regulatory framework of Islamic banking in a small financial centre that operates mostly offshore financial activities. Previous research work either focused on the empirical analysis or on reviewing the challenges and the prospects but no study has provided an in-depth analysis of the regulatory provisions circumscribing Islamic banking. This lacuna is being filled up by this research paper which highlights the regulatory needs of Islamic banking and comments on the inclusion of and the need for specific rules related to Islamic finance instead of relying on the overlap with conventional banking laws.

Money laundering continues to emerge as a transnational phenomenon that has harmful consequences for the global economy and society. Despite the theoretical and practical magnitude of money laundering, international business (IB) research on the topic is scarce and scattered across multiple disciplines. Accordingly, this study aims to advance an integrated understanding of money laundering from the IB perspective.

The authors conduct a systematic review of relevant literature and qualitatively analyze the content of 57 studies published on the topic during the past two decades.

The authors identify five streams (5Cs) of research on money laundering in the IB context: the concept, characteristics, causes, consequences and controls. The analysis further indicates six theoretical approaches used in the past research. Notably, normative standards and business and economics theories are dominant in the extant research.

The authors review the literature on an under-researched but practically significant phenomenon and found potential for advancing its theoretical foundations. Hence, the authors propose a 5Cs framework and a future agenda for research and practice by introducing 21 future research questions and two plausible theories to help study the phenomenon more effectively in the future.

In practical terms, the study extends the understanding of the money laundering phenomenon and subsequently helps mitigating the problem of money laundering in the IB environment, along with its harmful economic and societal impacts.

The authors offer an integrative view on money laundering in the IB context. Additionally, the authors emphasize wider discussions on money laundering as a form of mega-corruption.

The aim of the present study is to shed light on the role of legal practitioners, namely, lawyers and notaries, in the fight against money laundering: Are they considered as facilitators or obstacles against money laundering? How does the global and the EU legal framework deal with the legal professionals?

The research follows a deductive approach attempting to respond to questions such as: How do the lawyers’ and notaries’ societies react in front of the anti-money laundering measures that concern them and why? What are the discrepancies between the lawyers’ professional secrecy and the obligations that EU anti-money laundering legislation assigns them?

This study disclosures the response of the European union and international legal and regulatory framework as well as the reflexes of the international and European legal professionals’ associations to this danger. It also demonstrates the reaction of lawyers against European union anti-money laundering legislation, to the point that it limits not only the confidentiality principle but also the position of the European judicial systems to the contradiction between this principle and the lawyers’ obligation to report their suspicions to the authorities.

To fulfil the study goals, it was necessary to overcome some obstacles, like the limitation of existing sources. Indeed, transnational empirical research considering the professionals who facilitate money laundering is narrow. Besides, policymakers and academics only recently expressed more interest in money laundering and its facilitators.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the legal professionals’ role not only in money laundering practices but also in anti-money laundering policies.

This paper aims to analyse empirically the association between flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), net official development assistance (ODA) inflows and trade-related illicit financial outflows.

With this purpose, a linear model was estimated, using different panel-data estimators, and using a database for a sample of 49 countries spanning the period 2008–2017. The used measure of illicit financial outflows was based on the estimates by Global Financial Integrity of deliberate misinvoicing in merchandise trade.

Research findings show a significant and positive association between changes in both relative lagged net FDI flows and relative FDI outflows (as % of gross domestic product) and changes in the ratio of trade-related illicit capital outflows to total trade. However, these positive associations were only observed in the case of low-income countries. Also, the positive association of net ODA inflows on the IFFT outflows were restricted to the cluster of lower-middle-income countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to empirically estimate the association between FDI and ODA flows and trade misinvoicing at a macroeconomic level. Research findings may contribute to substantiate the concerns expressed in previous research about the potential unintended effects of aid on illicit capital flight in the case of lower-middle-income countries. They also shown that FDI flows could be an additional conduit for trade-related illicit financial flows in these countries

This study aims to examines both accrual and real-based earnings management (EM) behavior of listed corporations in tax-free countries during different economic situations. It also addresses the link between firm- and country-level determinants of accrual and real-based EM and explores economic conditions' influence on these determinants.

The study examines 1,608 firm-years, covers sixteen years (2004–2019), clustered into three periods according to the global financial crisis (GFC): four years prior (2004–2007), two years during (2008–2009), and ten years post the GFC (2010–2019). We employ the modified Jones model (performance-matched) developed by Kothari et al. (2005) to measure the accrual-based EM (positive and negative discretionary accrual EM) and the three levels model for Dechow et al. (1998) to measure the real-based EM (cash flow from operating, discretionary expenses and abnormal production cost).

The study finds a significant increase in EM practices in the listed corporations in tax-free countries during the economic downturn. These corporations are found to understate their earnings during the economic stress period. Simultaneously, the firm-level determinants of EM practices were at the same level of significance during different economic conditions in accrual-based EM. In contrast, the country-level EM determinants vary based on the economic conditions.

Financial reports' users gain a deep understanding of the quality of financial reports in the context of tax-free country. And, the study outcomes inspire policymakers to develop relevant legislation to mitigate financial reports' risk and adequately protect the financial reports' users.