THE PERFORMANCE OF MALAYSIAN ISLAMIC BANKING INDUSTRY AND THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN ISLAMIC BANKS

Malaysia’s determination to become a hub for Islamic banking in Southeast Asia has led the Central Bank of Malaysia to grant licenses to foreign Islamic banks to operate in the country. Due to the intense competition among Islamic banks, the introduction of more innovative products is projected to tap investment opportunities not only for Malaysia but also for the rapidly growing Southeast Asian region. This research assesses the significance of Malaysian Islamic banking since the introduction of the first Islamic bank two decades ago, and evaluates the competition among the Islamic banks in the country. The research evaluates the impact of foreign Islamic banks in Malaysia by measuring their contribution to the growth of the Malaysian Islamic banking industry. In relation to this, the study is designed to address three primary areas. First, to measure the performance of the Islamic banks in Malaysia by using financial ratios, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and the Malmquist Productivity Index. Second, to compare and evaluate the nature of competition and market structure of the Islamic banks in the country by employing the bank concentration ratio (CRk), Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), and the Panzar-Rosse (PR) model. Lastly, to validate the relationship between competition among Islamic banks in Malaysia and their financial performance. The selected financial ratios indicated that domestic Islamic banks performed better during the 2005 to 2012 period in terms of profitability, but the foreign Islamic banks excelled in terms of liquidity, risk, and solvency ratios. DEA results showed that the domestic Islamic banks are considered more efficient with the majority of domestic Islamic banks outperforming the foreign Islamic banks. Banks like Maybank Islamic, CIMB Islamic, and Alliance Islamic are considered among the top performers for technical efficiency and scale efficiency. The study also found that based on the Malmquist Productivity Index, the least efficient banks based on DEA have improved in technical efficiency, technology, and total factor productivity (TFP). The study also found that between 2008 and 2012, the Malaysian Islamic banking industry operated in monopolistic competition conditions with a moderately concentrated market structure. The introduction of foreign Islamic banks caused the market structure to become more competitive and less concentrated by comparing the results that include foreign Islamic banks against results generated with a subsample of domestic Islamic banks only. BNM’s financial reform and liberalisation of financial system proved to induce competition making the financial system more resilient, competitive, and dynamic. The Islamic banks have recorded consistent increased annual performance with the under-performing Islamic banks catching up to the top performers

A review on thermophysical evaluation of alkali-activated geopolymers

Recent progress in research on the key thermal expansion properties of amorphous, silica-based, alkali-activated geopolymers and their potential applications are here reviewed and addressed. Besides having great potential as thermal insulators and fire resistant materials since they are not combustible, geopolymers can be applied as interior aircraft components to improve fire resistance, and as coatings for insulator applications and many other potential applications. The raw materials used to make geopolymers are alumino silicates such as fly ash, granulated blast furnace slag, and calcined kaolinite clays. The raw materials can be obtained from biomass waste such as rice husk ash, palm oil ash, and rice husk bark ash. Different raw materials will exhibit different thermal expansion/shrinkage due to their different chemical compositions. In addition, processing of geopolymer material will result in diverse thermal properties due to the different molarity of the alkaline activated solutions used and method of preparation. Interestingly, it was found that the dilatometer curve is influenced by many factors such as aluminosilicate source, silica to alumina ratio, geopolymer mixing ratio, chemical composition and type of geopolymer—such as composite, coating or hybrid. These characteristics are investigated further in this review paper

The efficiency of Islamic banks in Malaysia: Based on DEA and Malmquist productivity index / Mohd Faizal Basria, Amirul Afif Muhamat and Mohamad Nizam Jaafar.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of liberalisation move by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) towards the efficiency of domestic and foreign Islamic banks (IBs) in Malaysia. This is consequence of decision of BNM that awarded licenses to three international IBs, namely Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Al Rajhi Bank, and Asian Finance Bank in 2005. In addition, this study takes into consideration the existing foreign banks in the country that operate via Islamic banking subsidiaries as part of foreign IBs. The research evaluates the impact of foreign Islamic banks in Malaysia by measuring their contribution to the growth of the Malaysian Islamic banking industry. Using a sample of 16 IBs in Malaysia from 2008 to 2015, the study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in measuring the efficiency level of each bank and comparative between the performance of domestic and foreign IBs in the country. The paper also employs the Malmquist Productivity Index to gauge the changes in its components between the same subjects and timeframe. The DEA results showed that the domestic Islamic banks are considered more efficient than most domestic Islamic banks outperforming the foreign Islamic banks. Banks like Hong Leong Islamic, Maybank Islamic, Public Islamic, and RHB Islamic are considered among the top performers for technical efficiency and scale efficiency. The study also found that based on the Malmquist Productivity Index, the least efficient banks based on DEA have improved in technical efficiency, technology, and total factor productivity (TFP)

Corporate Social Performance (CSP) influences on Islamic Bank's financial performance / Amirul Afif Muhamat, Mohamad Nizam Jaafar, Mohd Faizal Basri

This paper aims to assess the influence of corporate social performance (CSP) categories which are legal, ethical, economic and discretionary responsibilities over the Dummy Islamic Bank’s (the original name of the bank is remained confidential) financial performance. There are four components of CSP and findings indicate that this Islamic bank has fulfilled each category at minimum level - highest contribution was allocated for discretionary responsibility which is the pinnacle stage of CSP. This study has some limitations which need to be highlighted for future study. First, it only focused on one Islamic bank and may not reflect other Islamic banks in the country or in other region. Next, the period of observation is not lengthy to facilitate for more robust and rigorous analysis

Optimization of adhesion strength and microstructure properties by using response surface methodology in enhancing the rice husk ash-based geopolymer composite coating

As a result of their significant importance and applications in vast areas, including oil and gas, building construction, offshore structures, ships, and bridges, coating materials are regularly exposed to harsh environments which leads to coating delamination. Therefore, optimum interfacial bonding between coating and substrate, and the reason behind excellent adhesion strength is of utmost importance. However, the majority of studies on polymer coatings have used a one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach. The main objective of this study was to implement statistical analysis in optimizing the factors to provide the optimum adhesion strength and to study the microstructure of a rice husk ash (RHA)-based geopolymer composite coating (GCC). Response surface methodology was used to design experiments and perform analyses. RHA/alkali activated (AA) ratio and curing temperature were chosen as factors. Adhesion tests were carried out using an Elcometer and a scanning electron microscope was used to observe the microstructure. Results showed that an optimum adhesion strength of 4.7 MPa could be achieved with the combination of RHA/AA ratio of 0.25 and curing temperature at 75 °C. The microstructure analysis revealed that coating with high adhesion strength had good interfacial bonding with the substrate. This coating had good wetting ability in which the coating penetrated the valleys of the profiles, thus wetting the entire substrate surface. A large portion of dense gel matrix also contributed to the high adhesion strength. Conversely, a large quantity of unreacted or partially reacted particles may result in low adhesion strength

Fire retardant performance of rice husk ash-based geopolymer coated mild steel - a factorial design and microstructure analysis

Higher content of silica in geopolymer coating resulted in better thermal properties. Since rice husk ash (RHA) has the highest silica content compared to other aluminosilicate sources available, it offers the best potential to be an alternative silica source in producing geopolymer coating binder. In this study, five factors including ratio of alkaline activator (AA) (A), ratio of RHA/AA (B), curing temperature (C), curing time (D) and concentration of NaOH (E) were analyzed using statistical analysis to identify the significant factors that mostly influence fire retardant performance of RHA-based geopolymer coating. The fire retardant tests were conducted and results recorded included (i) time taken to reach 300°C and (ii) temperature at equilibrium. Sample S7 (coating composition of A=5.5, B=0.3, C=50°C, D=7days, E=8M) which produced the best fire retardant performance was selected for further detailed investigation using thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the back temperature of mild steel plate of sample S7 reached 300°C after 17 minutes and achieved an equilibrium state at 398°C. SEM micrographs showed the presence of needle-like structures formed after fire test might be the reason for the best fire performance of sample S7

Impact damage analysis for glass reinforced epoxy laminated plates using single stage gas gun

The overall purpose of the research is to investigate the effect of thickness on fiberglass reinforced epoxy laminates. In this study, simplified coupon specimens made from Epoxy/C-glass (200 g/m2) and Epoxy/C-glass (600 g/m2) with different thicknesses were used. To perform the high velocity impact tests (250 m/s), an instrumented single stage gas gun was used. The impacted specimens were examined to determine the extent of damages induced around the impacted point. For the projectiles velocity of 250 m/s, it was found that Epoxy/C-glass 200 g/m2 was able to absorb 21.5 J of energy at the thickness of 12 mm, while Epoxy/C-glass 600 g/m2 was able to absorb 96.1 J of energy at 10 mm thickness. Both the fibreglasses compute damage in terms of slight matrix breakage and cracking. A general trend was observed on the overall ballistic test results, which indicated that, as the plate thickness continue to increase, the damage at the lower skin decreases and could not be seen

Conceptual design and simulation validation based finite element optimisation for tubercle leading edge composite wing of an unmanned aerial vehicle

A finite element model is developed to determine deformation and stresses on a composite wing of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a tubercle design at the leading edge of the wing. Tubercles, commonly known as protuberances found on the leading edge of a whale pectoral flipper, offering great performance from an aerodynamic perspective. This paper deals with a first order shear deformation theory (FSDT) approach to discover the UAV laminates composite wing model of tubercle leading edge (TLE) with rib-reinforced so that the equivalent stiffness and material properties are obtained from the simulation of finite element analysis using ANSYS. Another structural configuration of design replicating the idea of monocoque concept, whereby foam is used at the leading and trailing edges of the wing. Styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) core foam is used representing high strength-to-weight ratio with its superiority in the mechanical properties of polymeric sandwich composites. The updated static structural analysis from rib-reinforced can be applied to update the wing stiffness distribution of monocoque-foam. The optimum design is concluded from the tabulated deformation and stresses of both wings, where monocoque-foam showed better performance with a reduction in 50.72% of deformation and 35.88% of stress, compared to rib-reinforced design

UAV NACA4415 wing structural performance analysis subjected to external aerodynamic load using Schrenk’s approximation

Structural analysis is widely used in the analysis of aircraft structures with the common application of the finite element method. The optimum structural design of aircraft wing is the crucial aspect in the performance of the aircraft considering the high stiffness-to-weight ratio and sustain maneuvering condition. In this study, the structural analysis is carried out on the two types of NACA4415 leading edge wing, namely conventional and tubercles. The analysis involves the combination of internal structures that contributed towards the optimization of increase the strength of the wing.Tubercles at the leading edge (TLE) wing commonly known for its superior aerodynamic performancein Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis. Whereas, Schrenk’s approximation method is usedto estimate aerodynamic load acting on aircraft lifting surfaces by predicting lift distribution along wing span. The structural static analysis is performed with the aid of computational finite element software, ANSYS 16.1 in order to determine stress and displacement distribution on the selected wing. Slight difference of both stress and displacement 0.4% and 0.1% as compared to conventional ones, thus proven that the design of TLE is acceptable for both aerodynamic and structural conditions. Hence, the result which showed that the composition of internal structures influences the strength of the wing in respect to the different pattern of leading edge

A preliminary study on translational kinetic energy absorption using coconut-fiber (Coir) sheets as a potential impact-worthy constituent in advanced aerospace material

Known as “coir”, the fibrous husk of the coconut fruit has potential for integration as a constituent in impact-resisting aerospace materials. As a preliminary study, kinetic energy absorption of this natural fiber is studied prior to further testing, for instance; a non-ballistic surface impacted at high velocity by a small mass is the equivalent mock-up to runway debris. The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between the thickness of the fiber with the kinetic energy absorption. Fabricated fiber panels measuring 10×10×t cm with various thickness are subjected to mild steel projectiles launched by a light gas gun at a constant pressure. The velocity of the projectiles is set to be consistent with the velocity range of typical transport-category aircraft. The impact response of the panels aids in predicting the required amendments where plies of coir sheets are increased to which perforation is impossible. The relationship established from the experimental results is then used to predict the amount of layers required for total translational kinetic energy absorption