Does an Islamic finance industry need a unification of standards? A qualitative discussion

The two main problems faced by the Islamic finance industry in Muslim countries are that the markets are fragmented, which gives rise to different governing standards, and that the markets’ growth is very much region-centric. In this article, using a qualitative approach, we identify the obstacles facing the industry in its quest to unify the differences and implement a uniform standard. We argue that if Malaysia’s Islamic finance industry is to become a leader in the global Islamic finance industry, a key policy must be to reduce the gaps in Islamic finance practices between countries by adopting unified standards. Unifying standards could enable Muslim countries to accrue greater benefits from the globalisation of the Islamic financial sector and attract more foreign direct investment and portfolio equity flows. It could also enable greater integration of Islamic financial markets, increase diversification opportunities and expand the set of available financial instruments

Bibliometric Review on Sustainable Finance

Unlike conventional finance, sustainable finance seeks to integrate social, environmental, and climate change considerations into financial institutions’ business strategies. The financial system’s ability to positively respond to sustainability transition demands is contingent upon a directional transformation that involves regulatory, political, structural, theoretical, and relational shifts. Accordingly, this paper performs a quali-quantitative analysis that combines both a bibliometric method with a content analysis process to investigate the trend of sustainable finance literature in the Scopus database and provide directions for potential future research. Our bibliometric performance analysis of 723 publications reveals that the UK, China, the US, Switzerland, and Japan are the major centers of research excellence in sustainable finance. They are the most productive countries and hold the most relevant institutions. Moreover, the prevalence of transdisciplinary journals over mainstream finance and economics sources is obvious. Our network map analysis, on the other hand, shows the substantial relevancy of sustainable/green banks’ involvement in sustainable development. Nonetheless, its relatively low density underlines the existence of relevant research gaps. Therefore, we undertake a content analysis of that particular topic’s literature to derive its conceptual structure and truly understand banks’ important role in sustainability transition. Key research themes in this respect include sustainability performance and banks’ profitability associations; sustainable banks’ risk profile; determinants of banks’ willingness to introduce sustainability criteria into their business strategy; depositors’/customers’ responsiveness to banks’ sustainability performance; and relevant macroprudential regulations, monetary policies, and supervisory guidelines to sustainability transition

Does Musharakah Mutanaqisah converge with Bai Bithamin Ajil and conventional loans?

This research examines the disputable Shari’ah and the technical issues underlying the implementation of the Musharakah Mutanaqisah Partnership (MMP) model in home financing by Islamic banks in Malaysia. It assesses whether this much-lauded facility is in line with Shari’ah rules and whether it diverges from or converges to the Bay’ Bithaman Ajil (BBA) and conventional loan models. This study uses a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews to achieve these objectives. With regard to the issue of convergence, it is obvious from the interviewees’ perceptions that the MMP model is converging with the BBA and conventional housing loans. Many factors were mentioned as the reasons for this convergence, with the most important being that Islamic banks are not operating in a fully fledged Islamic financial system, reducing the risk weightage and regulatory restrictions. As for Shari’ah compliance, controversy may result from the enhanced features that structure this facility. Though these enhanced features are Shari’ah compliant, it transforms the MMP model into a debt rather than a partnership contract