Search results

This paper explores the experience of “Shari’a” as non-state law in the English courts through a historical analysis of past Islamic finance dispute resolutions (IFDRs). This paper aims to propose a conceivable scenario relating to the law applicable in international commercial contracts in the English courts with the emergence of the Hague Principles 2015.

This paper addresses several issues that have been raised in English case law: doubts about the legal nature of “Shari’a” as non-state law; the limits placed on freedom of choice of “Shari’a” law by the application of a single legal system; and the distinction between application of law and incorporation by reference of “Shari’a” in IFDRs. The paper then analyses the conformity of “Shari’a” with the provisions now used to resolve Islamic finance disputes (trade and investment) in the English courts, using an empirical analysis of The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions standards.

The paper provides that, in theory, “Shari’a” standards could play a significant role in IFDRs after Brexit, even though a gap persists in practice because the Hague Principles 2015 have not yet been adopted by the English legal system.

The study focuses on the English courts and shows how the IFDRs could be resolved with the emergence of Hague Principles 2015 in the post-Brexit era.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper appears to be the first paper to provide a conceivable scenario relating to the future of the IFDRs in the English courts.

The study applies Erving Goffman's (1974) “frame analysis” principles to examine how Sharia governance is practiced in Islamic banks and explores the interaction and strategies adopted by bank managers to influence the decisions of Sharia scholars. The study also aims to identify inherent flaws in the Sharia compliance review system.

The study employs the principles of Goffman as a lens to critically analyse a rich dataset obtained through interviews undertaken with 46 key players operating in the governance framework of the Malaysian Islamic banking industry due to its progressive Islamic governance framework.

The study demonstrates that managers of Islamic banks may engage in “passing” and “covering” strategies while interacting within the governance structure. Concurrently, Sharia boards (SBs) implement “protective practices” during their interactions, adding complexity to their responsibilities within the banks. Consequently, SBs cannot merely be viewed as instruments for legitimising banking operations. This raises questions about the “impression management,” “concealment” and “competence” strategies employed by managers and SB members, as suggested by Goffman's framework. These findings indicate that there is room for further enhancement in the governance practices of Islamic banks.

Future research could explore aspects related to the governance of Islamic banks, such as investigating the independence and effectiveness of internal Sharia officers. Examining the strategies employed during their interactions with external Sharia boards and other stakeholders could provide further valuable insights.

By highlighting shortcomings in the governance and compliance review process, the findings could serve as a valuable resource for policymakers. The insights derived could inform the development of regulations aimed at reducing opportunistic behaviour and promoting accountability in the Islamic banking sector.

This study uniquely employs Goffman's concepts of “frontstage” and “backstage” strategies to offer insights into the interactions between Islamic bank managers and SBs and the impact of these interactions on Sharia compliance. The study contributes to the understanding of the dynamics between key players in the governance of Islamic banks and the factors influencing their adherence to Sharia principles.

This study aims to identify the factors that could explain the intention to use Paytech services within an Islamic banking context. The authors use an extended version of the technology acceptance model to develop a causal–predictive analysis.

The research model and hypotheses were tested by applying partial least square-structured equation modeling to data collected from 214 users of Islamic banking in Saudi Arabia.

The results show that perceived trust has a highly significant direct effect on the intention to use Islamic Paytech services, whereas perceived risk has a significant indirect effect on IU.

Internet banking behavior may not be static. In technology acceptance, during the various phases from introduction to the maturity phase, the respondent’s perceptions tend to change

From the point of view of Fintech services providers, the knowledge of the factors fostering the adoption of Fintech services would allow an international expansion without the inconvenience of establishing offices or companies in countries whose legislation does not favor the operations carried out by Islamic banks.

These digital payment services would allow access to financial services to the entire Muslim population regardless of their location (Islamic and non-Islamic nations) and will also reach out to the next generation of young Muslims as a majority are “digital natives” ready for digital Islamic financial solutions.

This study is the first to explore the intention to use Paytech services by Islamic banking users in Saudi Arabia. From a theoretical perspective, this work contributes to the academic literature by analyzing the intention to use Paytech services in an Islamic banking context. On the practical front, the study identifies the crucial factors that industry players can use to design their Paytech applications and services to increase financial inclusion in Saudi Arabia and other countries with similar cultures as well as to design an international expansion without the inconvenience of establishing offices or companies in countries whose legislation does not favor the operations carried out by Islamic banks.

This study aims to investigate the significant role of the Shariah Board (SB) in the innovation of digital finance products through SBs’ interaction with financial technology (FinTech).

By using semi-structured interviews, the paper examines 34 views and experiences of scholars and other practitioners from the FinTech and Islamic banking industries to gain an in-depth understanding of SBs’ Shariah compliance roles in FinTech inclusion in Malaysian Islamic banks (IBs).

Taking advantage of Malaysia’s comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework for IBs, the study highlighted the importance of SBs to better address the opportunities and challenges of financial innovation for the development of IBs with the inclusion of FinTech. The authors found that digital solutions and tools, such as Robo Advisory system and blockchain, enhance SBs’ roles by providing more effective and timely Shariah assurance regardless of the volume of data information and storage.

Given SBs significant roles in conforming to the Shariah, the study contributed significantly to assisting the regulatory and policy promulgation that enhance SBs’ integrity and credibility in response to the growth of IB infrastructures and financial innovation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the significant role of SBs in the innovation of digital finance products through their interaction with FinTech, while prior studies focused on the characteristics and structure of Islamic digital financial products.

The study explores the existing Shariah audit practice of Islamic banks (IBs) in Bangladesh aiming at providing suggestions for improvements on the detected shortfalls in the relevant areas.

This research applied a qualitative method, and data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews in Bangladesh. A total of 17 interviews were conducted for accomplishing the research objectives.

The study finds that there is no comprehensive Shariah audit manual in the current operation for IBs in Bangladesh, and as such, the requirements of their Shariah compliance remain a big question. Although the Shariah audit is conducted within IBs, and the Shariah audit officers or Shariah officers inspect necessary documents while conducting the Shariah audit, they only cover 10–20% of total investments and transactions. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the Shariah auditing tasks should broadly cover at least 80% of the investment portfolios, documents and financial contracts and activities.

The findings of this research are expected to significantly contribute to the regulatory authorities concerned in Bangladesh and beyond, which include the suggestions that IBs can adopt to strengthen their Shariah governance system. The study also pinpoints that in the current system, Shariah auditors' roles are somehow limited in examining and checking the investment sides with a minimal portion (10–20%), for which they are unable to perform their responsibilities in a befitting manner to provide assurance services and overall Shariah compliance of IBs activities.

This study explores the current Shariah audit systems and provides recommendations to improve the existing systems which will be beneficial for Islamic banks of Bangladesh.

To the researchers' knowledge, perhaps this is the first research of its kind which seeks to explore the current Shariah audit practice in Bangladesh qualitatively, and it provides some practical suggestions for making the necessary developments of the current audit process of IBs. In addition, there are no empirical studies in the entire Emerald insight publishers and Scopus database regarding Shariah audit practices. The study contributes to the agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories by exploring the Shariah audit of IBs.

Explaining the sources of the differences in social performance among Islamic banks (IBs) is the motivation for this research. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the development of Islamic finance regulation, the development of an Islamic financial system, the proportions of affected Muslim populations and the level of competition, on the one hand, and the social performance of IBs, on the other. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of the development of regulation and the Islamic financial system on the social performance of IBs.

A balanced panel of annual data for 40 banks from 13 countries is applied, spanning 2012–2018. A social performance index with eight dimensions is constructed and measures the social performance of IBs. The index based on qualitative and quantitative data derives from IBs’ annual reports and financial statements. The linear scaling transformation method articulates the quantitative dimensions of the index. In hypotheses testing, the authors use OLS, LSDV, FEM and Random Effect Model to estimate Model (1) and panel-corrected standard errors with Prais–Winsten transformation to estimate Model (2).

This unique research confirms the positive impact of the development of Islamic finance regulation on the social performance of IBs. The results show that the development of Islamic finance regulation is consistently significant on all standard significance levels. IBs’ age and the presence of Muslim populations in the country are also significant in most estimators.

The results of this research highlight a significant value for regulators, shareholders and the management of IBs. Without proper regulation, these banks can hardly operate under the principles and expectations of the Islamic moral economy.

This is pioneering research that explores the development of Islamic finance regulation and market concentration as a determinant of social performance of IBs. Development of Islamic finance regulation has proved significant in all estimated models, which confirms that a new variable has been discovered among determinants of the social performance of IBs.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between economic freedom and Islamic rural banks' efficiency in the case of Indonesia.

The study covers 40 Islamic rural banks in 34 Indonesian regions from 2014 to 2020. Tobit regression is utilized to expose the impact of economic freedom on the efficiency of Islamic rural banks, and nonparametric frontier data envelopment analysis is used to acquire banks' technical efficiency.

The findings reveal that overall economic freedom has a strong favorable impact on the efficiency of Islamic rural banks. The study’s breakdown components suggest that business freedom, government spending and investment freedom are favorable indicators, whereas government integrity and tax burden are negative indicators, and all indicators agree with previous studies.

This research can serve as a guideline for Islamic rural bank management in terms of maintaining financial efficiency. The government should think about the ramifications of financial sector liberalization and reforms, according to these findings. When financial intermediaries operate in a less constrained environment, they are more likely to pursue competitive practices that increase their operating rate and other efficiency metrics. Finally, academics might utilize this information to investigate the economic flexibility of Islamic rural banks.

The novelty of this study is in using data envelopment analysis and Tobit regression to identify economic freedom and Islamic rural banks' efficiency. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the study of the role of economic freedom in Islamic rural bank's efficiency is limited, particularly in the context of Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to construct an investment account holders' transparency and disclosure (IAH-T&D) index based on the new and revised accounting standard for investment accounts of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions Standards (AAOIFI) (2020). It also aims to measure and compare the compliance level with IAH-T&D over years and between countries.

This study uses the content analysis method to analyze the content of 270 annual reports across 30 Islamic banks (IBs) in 10 Middle East and North Africa countries during the period from 2010 to 2019.

This study introduces a new IAH-T&D index which consists of 27 items representing four categories: investment accounts disclosure (11 items), incentive earnings disclosure (1 item), allocations and reserve disclosure (4 items) and general requirements for disclosure (11 items). The analysis shows that the level of IAH-T&D is 51%. The level of compliance varies over the years and across countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that offers an original self-constructed-T&D index that could enhance future research related to determinants and consequences of IAH-T&D practice in IBs.

This study aims to examine how sharia supervisory board (SSB) characteristics are determinants of the maqashid sharia performance (MSP) of Islamic banks (IBs) and how MSP has implications for profitability and for profit-sharing investment account holders (PSIAHs).

MSP is ascertained by semi-structured interviews. The SSB characteristics measured are size, cross-membership, education level, expertise, reputation, rotation and remuneration. Annual reports of Indonesian and Malaysian IBs from 2010 to 2018 are analysed using panel data regression.

In Indonesia, SSB education level attenuates MSP, while other characteristics have only minor influence. However, in Malaysia, SSB size, education and reputation reinforce MSP, while others are ineffective. MSP in both countries is pseudo-Islamic; so their customers ignore religiosity. However, MSP in Malaysia can improve profitability because sharia assurance is more transparent; meanwhile, MSP in Indonesia cannot improve profitability because sharia assurance is less transparent.

In order for MSP to improve in Indonesia, the regulators need to increase SSB size, reduce cross-membership and arrange the format for sharia assurance in SSB reports, while IBs need to increase SSB education and expertise.

MSP is constructed in accordance with legal and social requirements to achieve IBs’ Islamic, economic, social and ethical objectives. Resource dependence theory is used to evaluate SSB, while PSIAH and profitability are investigated to demonstrate the impact of MSP. Finally, comparing SSB capabilities in Indonesia and Malaysia could be beneficial to regulatory and IB policies.

This study aims to explore and identify potential challenges and prospects for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme via an e-learning approach during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Questionnaires were administered to 296 participants who were enrolled in the professional shariah audit training programme via e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020. These participants were final-year students from selected Malaysian public universities.

Findings show that several main challenges are faced in adopting an e-learning approach for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme such as the inability to do more hands-on, group and physical activities, different understandings based on academic backgrounds, difficulty in learning practical and technical topics, technical issues and problems during e-learning sessions. These lead to the unsuitability of conducting professional training via the e-learning approach. In terms of prospects of knowledge learnt via the e-learning approach, participants showed that they are able to master all six modules covered in the professional shariah audit training programme via the e-learning approach. These include (1) shariah principles; (2) shariah governance; (3) Islamic financial transactions; (4) shariah risk management; (5) shariah audit planning and programme; and (6) shariah audit fieldwork and communication.

Based on the findings, it is suggested to have more time spent and earlier preparation on the learning contents and sessions, more discussion on actual contents and practical exercises and competency of the trainers in delivering e-learning sessions.

This study is believed to be one among the pioneering studies on the potential challenges and prospects in adopting e-learning for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme due to COVID-19.