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This study aims to investigate the possibility of practicing cross-subsidisation of underwriting surplus among different takaful operators. It responds to the recent discussion paper published by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on broader application of tàawun (mutual assistance), which seeks insights into cross-tàawun of underwriting surplus within takaful industry.

A qualitative, semi-structured interview is used to gather primary data, featuring 13 one-to-one interviews with selected Sharìah and operational experts in takaful. Open-ended questions are drafted according to BNM’s discussion paper to guide the interview. A content analysis method is used to delve into the topic based on scholarly papers, books and regulatory guidelines. A thematic analysis is applied to explore the qualitative data.

This study establishes the feasibility of cross-subsidisation of underwriting surplus in takaful. Given that participants are the rightful owners of the underwriting surplus, cross-tàawun is deemed permissible with participants’ consent. With the view that underwriting surplus belongs to the fund due to outright transfer of contributions by participants, the regulators have discretion to permit cross-tàawun. The authorities can make any decision if it serves the public interest. Furthermore, the study provides Sharìah and regulatory requirements to govern the practice of cross-tàawun in takaful. Respondents of the study advocate for policy reviews and regulatory adjustments to facilitate cross-subsidisation of takaful surplus.

This study significantly contributes to the existing body of knowledge in Islamic insurance studies. It offers valuable insights for the regulators to formulate the required policies and guides takaful operators to develop products accordingly. Moreover, the study supports Sharìah scholars in making informed decisions about cross-tàawun practices.

This study fills a critical gap in the existing literature by being the first to examine cross-subsidisation of underwriting surplus in takaful. The proposed cross-subsidisation of underwriting surplus will enhance sustainability of takaful funds and contribute to stability of takaful industry. As a foundation, this study encourages future research to explore other relevant aspects of cross-subsidisation of underwriting surplus in takaful operation.

This study aims to examine the influence of Islamic microfinance services (IMFS) on poverty reduction in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

A binary logistic regression model was used to analyze poverty reduction and income, education, household size, age and saving of IMFS through a semi-closed questionnaire by using a purposive sampling technique. A semi-closed interview with higher officials from an Islamic microfinance service was also used.

The study results show that the income, education, household size and age of the IMFS’ clients are the major influencing factors that affect poverty reduction in Ethiopia.

The study’s findings provide insights for policymakers to revise intensively their regulations and directives for Islamic microfinance operators. It emphasizes the government’s role in serving the community’s interests through financial inclusion and in developing programs to enhance the effectiveness of Islamic microfinance operations in the poverty reduction process. As a social implication, Islamic microfinance service providers gain insights into how beneficiary-side variables contribute to the country’s poverty reduction after offering Islamic microfinance products to them.

The results of this study are distinctive because they show how poverty reduction in Ethiopia is influenced by how income level is increased, how better educational level is attained, how household size is managed and how well the age of the client is effectively used for productivity. The paper also provides a new view of Islamic microfinance in Ethiopia, its influencing factors for poverty reduction and challenges with the operating system.

This study aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of 1,104 journal articles to explore the multifaceted research field of Islamic finance and banking, explicitly emphasising the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Insights into the evolving trends and dynamics within the academic discourse are presented.

The research highlights different patterns and collaborative networks through co-authorship, co-occurrence and thematic map analyses. Prior to the pandemic, research focused primarily on customer satisfaction and compliance with Shariah principles. However, the pandemic heralded an increased discourse on sustainability, fintech and the financial crisis.

This review describes the prevailing academic terrain and identifies potential avenues for future research, particularly those that examine the socio-economic impact of the pandemic within the context of Islamic finance and banking.

Prominent author such as M. Kabir Hassan, leading institution such as the International Islamic University Malaysia and esteemed journal such as the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management have been instrumental in shaping academic discussions and creating synergies in research. Moreover, Malaysia’s strong commitment to spatial research, evidenced by its robust global collaborations, underscores its pioneering role in the academic world of Islamic finance and banking.

This study aims to analyse the existing literature on the utilisation of financial technology (FinTech) in the Islamic social finance (ISF) sector, focusing on tools, applications and benefits. From this study, it is to provide insights for literature or for practitioners on how FinTech can be used in ISF, such as using blockchain (tools) in waqf (application) that can help to enhance transparency and trust (benefits) with donors. It is important to explore new available tools or applications in ISF markets so that such effort can benefit the industry in promoting its growth.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) which has been based on quality evaluation criteria, beginning with 41,945 entries in Scopus, 25,386 entries in the Web of Science and 1,590 entries in the Google Scholar databases and ending with 35 articles from data abstraction and analysis, all of which focus on tools, applications and benefits of FinTech in ISF sector.

This review yielded three primary themes and eleven sub-themes addressing FinTech, namely applications (four sub-themes: crowdfunding, blockchain, banking service and peer-to-peer (P2P), tools (three sub-themes: waqf, zakat and sadaqah), as well as benefits (four sub-themes: transparency, innovation, inclusiveness and efficiency).

This study emphasises on innovative application of FinTech used in ISF industry which focuses on applications, tools and benefits of FinTech to the industry. However, the findings indicate that there is plenty of room for future investigation. The current work outlines several methodological issues and concerns as well as provides recommendations for future research. Various challenges associated with FinTech applications include inadequate regulations, complex permit application procedures, misuse of FinTech for terrorist financing, the existence of fraudulent FinTech companies and consumer disputes in the FinTech sector concerning ISF. There are few in-depth studies on the possible use of FinTech models in ISF, compared to studies focusing on upcoming challenges. This study also highlights the methodological limitations in previous research efforts, which can be used to improve future studies in this area. To offer a more comprehensive analysis, additional search keywords and engines that have not been included in this study could be used in future investigations with different methodologies.

For practitioners, the paper has significant managerial consequences. The analysis provides insights into real-life opportunities, limits and solutions for improving performance management by looking at FinTech applications from a larger and more diverse perspective. The practitioners, especially the State Islamic Religious Council, can recognise the benefits of using FinTech technology in ISF (waqf, zakat and sadaqah), namely under their jurisdiction.

This systematic literature assessment identifies critical knowledge gaps that must be addressed such as the applications of FinTech that are still ambiguous, with certain applications not completely embraced in the ISF industry. This study uses SLR technique to categorise literature, identify gaps in current studies and provide recommendations for the research issue (Paul and Criado, 2020), instead of using the other previous methodology such as content analysis or qualitative review. Hence, FinTech is considered an innovative or new approach in ISF industry.

This paper focuses on the different Shari’ah resolutions on preference shares. This study aims to provide a systematic review to cover all authentic, peer-reviewed literature on this issue between the years 2001 and 2020.

This library research combines, compares and contrasts the discussions and the results of all these papers besides the opinions and discussions of some renowned scholars in the field.

The aim of this paper was met as every research during that period was included and scrutinized which resulted in a comprehensive knowledge about the presence shares.

One of the limitations was the limited research on the Shari’ah issues in preference shares as a regulatory capital that meets Basel III accords.

This paper will be the reference for any researcher who wants to add value on this issue and to start from where researchers ended.

In developing countries, including achieving Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) Vision 2030, housing loans for low-income employees are challenging and may thwart housing-related sustainable development goals (SDGs). Studies investigating housing finance inaccessibility for KSA Vision 2030 low-income earners and its impact on achieving housing-related SDGs are scarce. Hence, this study aims to investigate KSA housing financial inaccessibility and its effect on housing-related SDGs. Also, it offered suggestions for achieving housing provision in Vision 2030 and, by extension, improving housing-related SDGs.

The study adopted a virtual interview approach and covered Alqassim, Riyadh and Medina. The researcher engaged 24 participants who were knowledgeable about KSA’s housing finance and SDGs. They include selected low-income earners, academicians, financial operators and government ministries/departments/agencies. The study manually analysed the collated data through a thematic approach and presented the main themes.

Findings reveal that KSA’s low-income earners’ housing finance inaccessibility threatens Vision 2030 and housing-related SDGs. Inadequate funding of the Real Estate Development Fund, inability to make down payment, absence of collateral, insufficient household income and failure to recover the loan and associated charges from the auction were perceived major issues contributing to low-income earners’ house-loan rejection and recommended measures to improve achieving housing-related SDGs.

The study investigated the factors contributing to low-income earners’ housing loan rejection and its impact on achieving KSA’s Vision 2030 and housing-related SDGs from the participants’ perspective. The findings reveal that low-income earners’ housing finance accessibility has been compounded by the slow recovery from the post-COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to identify the problems in shariah compliance and the weak oversight of implementing Islamic crowdfunding (ICF). Shariah compliance regulation is an essential subsystem in Islamic social finance ecosystems.

This type of research is legal research. The research approaches are the statute, comparative and conceptual approaches. The study in this research examines Indonesia, the UK and Malaysia.

ICF is one of the fastest-growing sectors of Islamic financial technology (fintech). The Islamic fintech sector is showing maturity signals with a market size of $79bn in 2021, projected at $179bn in 2026. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia lead the Index by Global Islamic Fintech (GIFT) Index scores. However, low shariah compliance is still an issue in implementing ICF. This problem is caused by regulatory support that is still lacking and oversight of shariah compliance is not optimal. On the one hand, shariah compliance is the ICF core principle for Shariah Governance.

This study examines the regulation and oversight of ICF in Indonesia, Malaysia and the UK. Indonesia and Malaysia, a country with the highest GIFT index score in the world, and the UK, a country with an Islamic finance sector experiencing rapid growth.

The research results on shariah compliance regulation in ICF are helpful as a comprehensive approach for developing sustainable Islamic social finance ecosystems.

Shariah compliance is the core principle of ICF governance. Its implementation can increase public trust.

Crowdfunding platform and issuers in ICF must implement shariah compliance. Therefore, it is essential to consider the presence of shariah compliance requirements and a Shariah Supervisory Board (DPS).

Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) can gather provisioned funds from various sources, but they are prohibited from incorporating these funds into their profits or using them for personal gain as they are considered illegitimate income. Instead, IFIs are required to allocate these funds to charitable purposes. This study aims to examine the potential establishment of a Waqf (an Islamic alternative for endowment) using the provisioned funds of IFIs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by analyzing its Shariah perspective, utility and viability.

This research uses an information-gathering approach, gathering data from books, articles, journals and websites to illuminate the Shariah perspective of endowing provisioned funds. Additionally, it draws upon interviews with experts in Waqf and Islamic banking and finance to grasp the potential and viability of establishing a Waqf from provisioned funds in the UAE.

Establishing a Waqf using provisioned funds is permissible. Although Waqf is always advantageous, in the current situation, endowing Islamic financial institutions' provisioned funds will not adequately address societal needs in the UAE. This is because the majority of annual returns on UAE Waqf investments are low compared to the amount invested, and there is an urgency to disburse these funds to those in need. If these needs are identified and met using Zakat and other charitable funds, a Waqf can be created from provisioned funds and prove beneficial. However, the authors have suggested some proposals to establish a relevant Waqf from provisioned funds that satisfy the required conditions and address the societal needs of the UAE. They concluded that creating a Waqf school would be the best suggestion.

The scope of this study is limited to examining the use of IFIs' provisioned funds to establish a Waqf in the UAE. Furthermore, the findings and conclusions of this study may be applicable only to the UAE and may not be universally applicable to other countries.

Proposed initiatives to create a “Cash Waqf” fund and a “Waqf School” using provisioned funds are anticipated to bring about immediate positive changes for the underprivileged and the wider UAE community. Furthermore, the sustainable establishment of any Waqf could greatly benefit society by addressing all societal needs through Zakat and charitable contributions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the potential and practicality of creating a Waqf using provisioned funds from IFIs in the UAE.

This study aims to investigate the current practices among selected non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Malaysia in offering Islamic personal financing and the multiple challenges faced by them.

The qualitative research methodology was used, and primary data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 10 respondents consisting of NBFIs’ representatives and Shariah advisors.

Most Islamic personal financing practice is based on tawarruq. Among the major challenges faced by NBFIs are the absence of a comprehensive legal framework, Shariah non-compliance risks, cost, human resources and risk management. Recommendations include establishing a proper legal framework and Shariah governance. The study also recommends centralising at the regulatory level aspects such as training, commodity murabahah system and the department performing the Shariah advisory and control functions.

Online interviews were conducted during the early wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with a limited number of respondents due to people’s hesitancy to participate during the pandemic.

The findings will guide regulators and industry players concerning the challenges that must be addressed and the recommendations that can be considered in ensuring complete adherence to Shariah principles for the offering of personal financing. Eventually, Muslim society in need of cash will benefit from the broader choice of Shariah-compliant personal financing.

The research highlights the weaknesses of self-regulation in guaranteeing Shariah compliance and the need for regulatory intervention.

This is a pioneering empirical study that investigated the offering of Islamic personal financing among NBFIs in Malaysia, the challenges and the way forward.

This study aims to price the risk contribution of general Takaful at the level of tariff cells, considering a spatial dependency framework.

Three different models, including a generalized linear model, a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) and a spatial generalized linear mixed model (SGLMM), according to the actuarial modeling of general Takaful, are used to price pure risk contribution (PRC).

The results reveal that the SGLMM yields more accurate predictions of the PRC compared to the other models, emphasizing the significance of spatial modeling in this context. Following the estimation of the PRC, the gross contribution according to the mechanism of Takaful models is calculated considering the spatial model.

Considering the similarities between Takaful and insurance, this study addresses the pricing of general Takaful within different Takaful models through a spatial dependency framework, such that the practical implications of the study are applicable for running Takaful's business in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries.

Most studies consider only the social or practical view of Takaful. This study contributes to the broader knowledge and understanding of Takaful by presenting a conceptual understanding of Takaful and then investigates the practical application of pricing risk contribution using innovative modeling of claim frequency and severity at the level of tariff cells.