Culture and the capital-performance nexus in dual banking systems

While recent surveys have taken a special interest in culture to explain the failure of existing regulation, empirical evidence on the role of culture in influencing the regulation-performance link is still largely unexplored. In this paper, we ask the following: Should regulators and policy makers make room for culture as an effective tool for a successful bank regulatory environment? We identify three proxies for cultural values derived from Hofstede (1980, 2001) and the World Values Survey and investigate to what extent individualism, masculinity, and trust can enhance or impede the regulation-performance link for conventional and Islamic banks. Analyzing a panel of 729 banks operating in 33 countries from 1999 to 2013, our paper provides empirical evidence that cultural values enhance the regulation-performance link for the two bank types. Our results have important policy implications: our paper represents a first initiative and provides evidence that culture has merits and can be used as an additional tool to implement regulatory guidelines in a successful way. JEL classification: G21, G2

Fintech and Islamic Finance: Literature Review and Research Agenda

Fintech revolution started with the introduction of credit cards in 1960 and have been revolutionized with blockchain technologies. Integration of Fintech based solution with Islamic finance has gained interest among academics. However, the lack of literature evidence on this issue has motivated us to conduct a systematic literature review on Islamic Fintech. We have identified fourteen documents relevant to the context of the study and conducted the content and thematic analysis. An extensive review of past literature allows us to identify Shari’ah compliance as one of the major challenges for the growth of Islamic fintech. In addition, we conclude that Islamic fintech might pose challenges for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in terms of operational efficiency, customer retention, transparency and accountability. We contribute by providing insights on the challenges faced by the Islamic finance industry toward integrating Fintech based solutions with reference to past studies and indicate areas for future studies that could reduce the gaps in Islamic Fintech literature

Political systems and the financial soundness of Islamic banks

We investigate whether and how political systems affect the financial soundness of conventional and Islamic banks. Using factors extracted from principal component analysis, we find that Islamic banks underperform their conventional counterparts in more democratic political systems but outperform them in hybrid and Sharia'a-based legal systems. The findings reflect the challenges Islamic banks face in Western countries in terms of perception, financial infrastructure, and regulatory constraints while mirroring the recognition of their specificities and their cultural and religious compliance with Sharia'a law in Muslim countries. The findings are robust to a battery of alternative estimation techniques and methods of correcting standard errors

Towards the Implementation of Monetary Management in Islamic Economic System Based on Recent Developments

Monetary management is an essential part of the objectives of Shari’ah under the umbrella of the preservation of wealth (Ma’al). Our primary sources: Qur’an and Sunn’ah, provide divine legislation on the prohibition of Riba to manage bases of monetary transaction. Further, the juristic tools facilitate scholars to propose solutions to meet the emerging issues on diversified aspects of society. Muslim scholars have always adapted and contributed to the Islamic finance system and regulation, theoretically and practically. In recent decades, Islamic banking and finance has seen strong momentum with double digit growth, fulfilling the monetary requirement of depositors on the liability side along with industry on the asset side. We seek to review the theoretical and empirical literature on Islamic monetary mangement. Monetary management in the Islamic economic context is still an area that needs more research. This paper examines how literature has been developed over time up until modern Islamic economic and banking practices. The findings suggest that Islamic monetary management has been gradually developed in recent years and such development is remarkable steps forward in pursuing Islamic monetary policy independently. In addition, Islamic monetary policy is proved to be relatively more effective compared to interest based conventional monetary policy. The implications of such findings have established new milestones for the central banks of all the countries, including the muslim majority countries for pursuing interest free Islamic monetary policy with full confidence.  Furthermore, there are four major views on Islamic monetary policy and the central banks of the world should choose one of the best methods and views for the greater effectiveness of monetary policy because conventional monetary policy has been less effective in bringing full employment and price stability in recent years and financial crisis has crippled the interest based conventional economic systems quite badly

Productivity and spillover effect of merger and acquisitions in Malaysia

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the productivity and spillover effect of Malaysian horizontal merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the long run. Design/methodology/approach: In terms of analytical tools, economic value added (EVA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are used. Findings: The results of this study reveal that M&As in the absence of antitrust laws could be driven by managerial self-interest to create market power instead of realizing synergistic gains. Also, in Malaysia, the non-merging rival firms have significantly higher productivity improvement than the control bidder firms, and therefore, this study has identified the spillover effect as a behavior of M&A reaction. Originality/value: This paper differs from previous studies in that it attempts not only to examine the real long-term gains of horizontal M&A activities in Malaysia but also the spillover effects of M&A activities on similar but non-merging firms

P–C and C–H Bond Cleavages of dppm in the Thermal Reaction of [Ru\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e(CO)\u3csub\u3e10\u3c/sub\u3e(μ-dppm)] with Benzothiophene: X-ray structures of [Ru\u3csub\u3e6\u3c/sub\u3e(μ-CO)(CO)\u3csub\u3e13\u3c/sub\u3e{μ\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e-PhP(C\u3csub\u3e6\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e)PPh}(μ\u3csub\u3e6\u3c/sub\u3e-C)] and [Ru\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e(CO)\u3csub\u3e9\u3c/sub\u3e(μ\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e-η\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e-PhPCH\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3ePPh\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e)(μ\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e-η\u3csup\u3e6\u3c/sup\u3e:η\u3csup\u3e1\u3c/sup\u3e:η\u3csup\u3e1\u3c/sup\u3e-C\u3csub\u3e6\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e)(μ-H)]

The thermal reaction of [Ru3(CO)10(μ-dppm)] (1) with benzothiophene in refluxing toluene gives a complex mixture of products. These include the known compounds [Ru2(CO)6{μ-CH2PPh(C6H4)PPh}] (2), [Ru2(CO)6{μ-C6H4PPh(CH2)PPh}] (3), [Ru3(CO)9{μ3-η3-(Ph)PCH2P(Ph)C6H4}] (4) and [Ru3(CO)10{μ-η2-PPh(CH2)(C6H4)PPh}] (6), as well as the new clusters [Ru6(μ-CO)(CO)13{μ3-η2-PhP(C6H4)PPh}(μ6-C)] (5) and [Ru4(CO)9(μ3-η2-PhPCH2PPh2)(μ4-η6:η1:η1-C6H4)(μ-H)] (7). The solid-state molecular structures of 5 and 7 were confirmed by single crystal X-ray analyses. Compound 5 consists of interesting example of a hexaruthenium interstitial carbido cluster having a tetradentate diphosphine ligand derived from the activation of P–C and C–H bonds of the dppm ligand in 1. The tetranuclear compound 7 consists of a unique example of a non-planar spiked triangular metal fragment of ruthenium [Ru(1), Ru(2) and Ru(3)] unit with Ru(4) being bonded to Ru(1). The μ4-η1:η6:η1-benzyne ligand in this compound represents a previously uncharacterized bonding mode for benzyne. Compounds 5 and 7 do not contain any benzothiophene-derived ligand. The reaction of 4 with benzothiophene gives 2, 3, 5 and 6. Thermolysis of 1 in refluxing toluene gives 2, 3 and 4; none of 5 and 7 is detected in reaction mixture

Ruthenium and osmium carbonyl clusters incorporating stannylene and stannyl ligands

The reaction of [Ru₃ (CO)₁₂] with Ph₃SnSPh in refluxing benzene furnished the bimetallic Ru-Sn compound [Ru₃(CO)₈(μ-SPh)₂(μ3-SnPh₂)(SnPh₃)₂] 1 which consists of a SnPh₂ stannylene bonded to three Ru atoms to give a planar tetra-metal core, with two peripheral SnPh₃ ligands. The stannylene ligand forms a very short bond to one Ru atom [Sn-Ru 2.538(1) Å] and very long bonds to the other two [Sn-Ru 3.074(1) Å]. The germanium compound [Ru₃(CO)₈(μ-SPh)₂(μ₃-GePh₂)(GePh₃)₂] 2 was obtained from the reaction of [Ru₃ (CO)₁₂] with Ph₃GeSPh and has a similar structure to that of 1 as evidenced by spectroscopic data. Treatment of [Os₃(CO)₁₀(MeCN)₂] with Ph₃SnSPh in refluxing benzene yielded the bimetallic Os-Sn compound [Os₃(CO)₉(μ-SPh)(μ₃-SnPh₂)(MeCN)(ƞ¹-C₆H₅)] 3. Cluster 3 has a superficially similar planar metal core, but with a different bonding mode with respect to that of 1. The Ph₂Sn group is bonded most closely to Os(2) and Os(3) [2.7862(3) and 2.7476(3) Å respectively] with a significantly longer bond to Os(1), 2.9981(3) Å indicating a weak back-donation to the Sn. The reaction of the bridging dppm compound [Ru₃(CO)₁₀(μ-dppm)] with Ph₃SnSPh afforded [Ru₃(CO)₆(μ-dppm)(μ₃-S)(μ₃-SPh)(SnPh₃)] 5. Compound 5 contains an open triangle of Ru atoms simultaneously capped by a sulfido and a PhS ligand on opposite sides of the cluster with a dppm ligand bridging one of the Ru-Ru edges and a Ph₃Sn group occupying an axial position on the Ru atom not bridged by the dppm ligand

Dirhenium Carbonyl Complexes Bearing 2-Vinylpyridine, Morpholine and 1-Methylimidazole Ligands

Treatment of the labile compound [Re2(CO)8(MeCN)2] with 2-vinylpyridine in refluxing benzene affords exclusively the new compound [Re2(CO)8(μ-η1:η2-NC5H4CHCH2)] (1) in 39% yield in which the μ-η1:η2-vinylpyridine ligand is coordinated to one Re atom through the nitrogen and to the other Re atom via the olefinic double bond. Reaction of [Re2(CO)8(MeCN)2] with morpholine in refluxing benzene furnishes two compounds, [Re2(CO)9(η1-NC4H9O)] (2) and [Re2(CO)8(η1-NC4H9O)2] (3) in 5% and 29% yields, respectively. Reaction of [Re2(CO)8(MeCN)2] with 1-methylimidazole gives [Re2(CO)8{η1-NC3H3N(CH3)}2] (4) and the mononuclear compound fac-[ReCl(CO)3{η1-NC3H3N(CH3)}2] (5) in 18% and 26% yields, respectively. In the disubstituted compounds 2 and 4, the heterocyclic ligands occupy equatorial coordination sites. The mononuclear compound 5 consists of three CO groups, two N coordinated η1-1-methylimidazole ligands and a terminal Cl ligand. The XRD structures of complexes 1, 3 and 5 are reported