scholarly journals The feasibility of adopting Islamic Banking system under the existing laws in Uganda

Author(s):  
Sulaiman Lujja ◽  
Mustafa Omar Mohammad ◽  
Rusni Bt. Hassan ◽  
Umar A. Oseni

Purpose In 2014, Islamic finance assets are estimated to have exceeded US$2 trillion with over 100 products and an annual growth of over 20.7 per cent, across more than 76 countries, most of which are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Despite this remarkable market expansion, numerous OIC members such as Uganda are yet to fully adopt this unique financial system because of regulatory constraints. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which Uganda can benchmark the Malaysian experience and best practices to overcome the regulatory challenges in introducing Islamic Banking. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study adopts qualitative research methods through documentary review to elicit relevant information from the existing laws in Uganda that would accommodate the Islamic Banking system. Interpretive analysis and analytical methods are used to analyze data. Findings The Malaysian experience and best practices of Islamic Banking regulation need to be benchmarked by regulators. Relevant laws which require some amendments include section 37(a) and 38(1) of the Financial Institutions Act 2004 and section 29(3)(a) of the Bank of Uganda Act 2000. Similarly, tax legislation needs amendments to ensure a level playing field for Islamic finance and conventional finance products. Originality/value This is one of the earliest studies on models of Islamic Banking regulation suitable for adoption in Uganda. This study contributes to literature on how other jurisdictions (especially those with less regulatory prudence) could regulate Islamic Banking in a dual banking system jurisdiction.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahadi Ahmad ◽  
Riaz Ansary

Purpose Islamic banks are obliged to carry out transactions that only comply with Islamic commercial laws. Malaysia has been championing the Sharīʿah-based banking system, and so, continuous improvement on the compliance level of the institutions offering Islamic financial services is key to its global recognition in this industry. One of the issues that can affect deposit products is existence of a sale contract and loan facility in one transaction. Famous prophetic tradition prohibits this. Hence, this paper aims to examine the linkage between bayʿwa salaf (combination between a sale contract and loan in one transaction) and deposits accounts in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The subject matter of this paper is one that is researchable within library-based research. It is on this premise the research used the non-empirical qualitative research methodology. It used inductive method of analysis of both Islamic and policy documents on Islamic banking in Malaysia. Literature from Islamic jurisprudence, websites of some of the Islamic banks in Malaysia and relevant resolutions from the Shariah Advisory Council of Central Bank of Malaysia were consulted. Findings Based on the methodology mentioned above, the researchers arrived at the following findings: that, although there is no juristic disagreement about the prohibition of bayʿwa salaf, disagreement, however, occurs in results of some contracts. The most notable area of agreement on the existence of bayʿwa salaf is when there is express stipulation of sale or rendering of service and express or implied stipulation of loan alongside of the sale or service rendering. In an organized reversed tawarruq, the use of these deposits by the banks is regarded as loan from the depositors to the banks, who will soon put the money into sale that will generate profit to be divided between the banks and their depositors. However, this study finds that this is not bayʿwa salaf prohibited by the prophetic tradition. Originality/value The originality of this topic is proven by the new banking regulation regime of Malaysia, which compels Islamic banks to guarantee all deposits under them. As Islamic banks carry out their banking activities through trading, there is need to conduct a research such as this. This is to examine whether Islamic banks’ unilateral use of depositors’ funds in non-investment accounts which is translated, constructively, as loan from the depositors to Islamic banks amounts to bayʿwa salaf before the future tawarruq. Here there is loan and sale, which is the tawarruq. Hence, the need to do this research.


Author(s):  
Abdul-Nasser H.R. Hikmany ◽  
Umar A. Oseni

Purpose This paper aims to examine the prospects of a dispute resolution framework for the Islamic banking industry in Tanzania under the existing legal framework. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on comparative study by drawing significant lessons from other jurisdictions, and argues that to avoid some of the initial drawbacks in the dispute resolution framework for Islamic banking transactions in more advanced jurisdictions like Malaysia and United Kingdom, it is important for Tanzania to get it right from the onset to effectively manage Islamic banking disputes. Findings The study finds that apart from the court system which provides the main avenue for Islamic finance litigation, other processes such as arbitration and mediation which are deemed to be more sustainable could also be developed for effective dispute management. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on Tanzania banking system with comparison to other jurisdictions. Practical implications An increase of Sharī’ah-compliant products in Tanzania has led to the establishment of a number of Islamic banks. This study demonstrates the need for Tanzania to make use and/or make adjustment of its laws for effective dispute settlement of banking-related disputes. Originality/value This study appears to be the first paper to draw significant experiences from other jurisdictions to resolve Islamic banking disputes in Tanzania. It is expected to provide a good policy framework for the stakeholders in the Islamic banking industry in Tanzania.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinaj Valangattil Shamsudheen ◽  
Saiful Azhar Rosly ◽  
Syed Abdul Hamid Aljunid

Purpose This study aims to examine the decision-making behaviour of Islamic banking practitioners of the United Arab Emirates with special reference to the operational line heterogeneity by employing factors that are religious in nature such as intellect, satanic force and divine knowledge as encapsulated in al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy. Design/methodology/approach A total of 337 samples were collected from the Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates using a purposive sampling technique, and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using Partial least square Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Findings The empirical findings reveal that the dedicated use of intellect in making decisions related to ethical issues where desires and emotions tend to overwhelm reason and human choices. While divine knowledge is found ineffective guidance of the intellect, the element of satanic force is found significantly impacting decision-making. As the lack of religious consciousness is evident among respondents, higher exposure to operational risk is expected. These findings were found identical across the Islamic banking practitioners in different lines of operations. Research limitations/implications The span of the study is limited to a single country. Future studies are recommended to replicate the study to more markets where the share of Islamic finance is significant. Practical implications Findings of the study highly suggest respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify the capacity-building programs on the foundation of faith which includes Islamic thought and worldview, to enhance the corporate ethical decision-making. Moreover, equal importance should be given to all the banking practitioners regardless of line of business operations. Originality/value With undue emphasis is given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in the Islamic banking and finance industry, less has been attempted to explore its ethical dimension (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters that leave a relatively large gap to address prevailing unethical practices in Islamic finance institutions. Findings from this study can be useful as a warning to the Islamic banking firms to enhance the sense of God-fearing and improve existing measures in the organisation in mitigating operational risks that may arise from people or system and consequently ensure the smooth governance of the Islamic banks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1151-1158
Author(s):  
Nur Khalidah Dahlan ◽  
Mohd Rizal Palil ◽  
Noor Inayah Yaa‟kub ◽  
Mohamad Abdul Hamid

Malaysia has already known as an Islamic country. In a country of multi-ethnicity, multi-religion and multi-cultural societies, demands a concept of justice and equality that is different from other countries, particularly the ones with homogenous societies. The highest law of the land places Islam, the religion associated with one of the main ethnicity, as the official religion of the nation and allowed the duality of economic system, in particular banking system, whereby conventional banking system exists side-by-side with the Sharia-compliant, Islamic banking. By reviewing the pertinent literature on the development of Islamic banking, the reviewed cases on Islamic banking and its contributions to Malaysian society regardless of ethnicity and religion. The discussion in this paper therefore will be directed towards highlighting the laws and mechanisms of solution on Islamic banking and its implication to enhance the application of Islamic banking laws to consumers regardless of ethnicity and religion, in order to maintaining fairness and justice in a multi-ethnic society


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdi Ghaemi Asl ◽  
Muhammad Mahdi Rashidi ◽  
Alireza Ghorbani

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of market structure and market share on the performance of the Islamic banks operating in the Iranian banking system based on the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm. Design/methodology/approach The Iranian Islamic banking system’s market structure is evaluated by using the econometrics method to test the validity of the traditional SCP paradigm. For this purpose, the authors estimate a simple regression model that is consisted of several independent variables, such as the market share, bank size, real gross domestic product, liquidity and Herfindahl-Hirschman index as a proxy variable for concentration and one dependent variable, namely, the profit as a proxy for performance. The panel data includes a data sample of 22 Islamic banks operating from 2006 to 2019. Data are extracted from the balance sheet of Islamic banks and the time-series database of the Central Bank of Iran and World Bank. Findings The study’s findings indicate that both concentration and market share have a positive impact on the performance of banks in the Iranian Islamic banking system. This result is contradicted with both traditional SCP and efficient structure hypotheses; however, it confirms the existence of oligopoly or cartel in the Iranian Islamic banking system that few banks try to gain the highest share of profit and maintain their market share by colluding with each other. This result is in contradiction with other research studies about the market structure in the Iranian banking system that claimed that banks in Iran operate under monopolistic competition. In addition, it shows that the privatization of some banks in Iran does not improve and help competition in the Iranian banking system. Originality/value This paper is a pioneer empirical study analyzing the market structure, concentration and collusion based on the SCP paradigm in Iranian Islamic banking. The results of the study support the existence of collusive behavior among the Islamic bank in Iran that is not aligned with Sharia. This study clearly shows the difference between ideal Islamic banking and Islamic banking in practice in Islamic countries. This clearly indicates that only prohibiting some operations like receiving interest, gambling and bearing excessive risk is not enough. In fact, the Islamic banking system should be based on the Sharia rule in all aspects and much more modification and study have to be done to achieve an appropriate Islamic banking system. These possible modifications to overcome the issues of cartel-like market structure and collusive behavior in the Iranian Islamic banking system include making the Iranian banking system more transparent, letting foreign banks enter the Iranian banking system and minimizing the government intervention in the Iranian banking system.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Bulut ◽  
Harun Celik

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence farmers' preference for the use of Islamic banks in Turkey and to investigate their knowledge level and perception about Islamic finance.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data used in this study is obtained by drawing a sample of 1902 farmers who are members of the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives Union (ACCU) from 37 provinces of Turkey. Pearson's Chi-square test is used to analyze the association between the demographic features of farmers, conventional bank usage and Islamic bank usage. Binary logistic regression model is used to estimate the factors influencing the preference for Islamic banks. Explanatory variables include knowledge on Islamic banking and finance, perception of compliance to religion, saving ability and cost concern along with the control variables of Islamic bank branch number in the region and age of respondent. Robustness check is conducted via alternative models using ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression.FindingsLess than 10% of the participant farmers use Islamic banks and 59% declare they know nothing about Islamic banking. Age, education level, income level, nonagricultural income level, saving ability, duration of working in agriculture, land size and region are significantly related to farmers' preference of using Islamic banks. Knowledge level, perception of religious compliance, saving ability and cost concern are statistically significant factors that influence the probability of using Islamic banks.Research limitations/implicationsThis study does not include the analysis of the relationship between being religious and using Islamic banks because questions related to the assessment of religious practice were excluded due to the ACCU's sensitivity to investigate personal beliefs. Therefore, future studies can expand the scope of this research by investigating religiousness. The sample is chosen from the ACCU members who are already benefiting from a formal source of credit; therefore, the results should not be attributed to all farmers.Practical implicationsIslamic banks and microfinance institutions' further engagement in the agricultural sector and ACCU's implementation of Islamic finance instruments.Social implicationsIslamic banks' further diversification in the agricultural sector and ACCU's implementation of Islamic finance instruments.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate the farmers' perception and preference of Islamic banking in Turkey. The sample size of 1902 is much larger and geographically diversified compared to studies in agricultural finance. This study will be valuable for the agricultural finance empirical studies in Turkey as well as an important addition to the emerging literature on Islamic finance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhtar Ali Saeed Mohammed ◽  
Fadillah Mansor

Purpose This paper aims to analyse whether the practices of Islamic banks in Bahrain are in line with value-based Islamic banking (VBIB) and reporting disclosure in the annual reports towards achieving their fundamental objectives of human-centred economic development and social justice. Design/methodology/approach Based on Islamic finance, Islamic economic principles and perception of Maqasid al-Shari’ah, this paper examines and assesses the current practices of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in Bahrain through content analysis of financial and annual reports of Islamic banks in Bahrain and interviews of Islamic banking experts. Findings The findings reveal that value-based banking (VBB) has not been translated fully into practice by the Islamic banks in Bahrain. Research limitations/implications The data analysis was restricted to Islamic banks in Bahrain. Practical implications This paper identifies the need for reporting standard development to improve the VBB practice in Bahrain in the future. Looking at the objectives of the IFIs, this paper introduces the concept of VBB in Bahrain, which includes ethical banking, responsible banking and social responsibility. The study adds value not only to the current Islamic finance literature but also helps many stakeholders, including prospective academics, who may conduct comparative studies in different jurisdictions throughout the world. Originality/value The specific contribution of this paper is the identification of the VBB practices and related disclosure in the Islamic banking industry in Bahrain. The study is useful to harmonise and standardise the practices of VBIB by the contemporary Islamic banks in Bahrain.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-386
Author(s):  
Yasmeen Al Balushi ◽  
Stuart Locke ◽  
Zakaria Boulanouar

Purpose This paper aims to investigate small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) owner–managers’ awareness, willingness and perceptions concerning Islamic financing instruments as an alternative sourcing decision in SMEs’ businesses. Design/methodology/approach The research employed mixed methods to gather data. A questionnaire survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews with 385 SME owner–managers operating in Muscat, Oman’s capital city, along with face-to-face discussion on Islamic finance with 86 SME owner–managers. Descriptive and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Findings The findings indicate that SME owner–managers are aware of Islamic banking principles and have knowledge of Islamic financial instruments, despite Islamic finance being new to Oman. Interestingly, although the majority of the participants indicated their intention to adopt this new finance method, they were motivated by special requirements other than finance. Their positive perception of Islamic financing methods could play a significant role in developing the Islamic banking industry. Research limitations/implications The research is limited in that its data came only from Omani SME owner–managers in Muscat. Future research could investigate wider samples. Secondly, the study’s findings lack generalisability to larger and public enterprises, because only SME owner–managers were surveyed. Practical implications This study will be important for policy makers concerned about SMEs’ financing, Islamic financial institutions and new entrants into the Islamic banking industry, as it provides empirically evidence of Omanis’ views, and more specifically those of Omani SME owner–managers, on the recent introduction of Islamic finance into the country. The insights this study offers should help them to develop the strategies required to attract SMEs and to construct policies and regulations to improve Oman’s Islamic banking industry. Originality/value The research is significant, as it is the first study to investigate the awareness, willingness and perceptions of Omani SMEs regarding Islamic banking in Oman. Even though all Omanis are Muslims, Oman was the last of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council countries to introduce Islamic finance. Thus, this emerging market provides an important basis from which to extend future research on Islamic finance to other potential Islamic finance markets.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noradilah Abdul Hadi ◽  
Mohd Rizal Muwazir

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine selection factors among multi-ethnic customers in Malaysian Islamic banking industry. The information is important to reinforce the argument that ethnicity could become significant factor in determining customer behaviour. Design/methodology/approach This study uses quantitative approach by using questionnaire (Likert scale) to measure respondents ranking of 25 selection factors. A total of 272 valid responses were generated from 450 questionnaires distributed, with 60.4% response rate. The methods of analysis used are descriptive analysis, factor analysis and Kruskal–Wallis test. Findings The findings revealed five selection factors (religious and ethical, services and convenience, service quality and benefit, external and operational and charges), with religious and ethical factor as the most important criteria for Malay customers. As for Chinese and Indian customers, they chose services and convenience factor. Originality/value This study is conducted to gain new insights on the perception of multi-ethnic banking customers in Malaysia towards Islamic banks and how cultural differences might affect their decisions. The findings are important for further development of the Islamic banking industry in Malaysia considering ethnicity has a major impact on the society. The acknowledgement of similarities and differences between the ethnic groups could strengthen the relationship with the Islamic banking customers. Furthermore, incorporation of ethnicity factor in bank’s marketing strategies is important to secure competitive advantage particularly in dual banking system such as in Malaysia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-619
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Abiodun Oladapo ◽  
Roshayani Arshad ◽  
Ruhaini Muda ◽  
Manal Mohammed Hamoudah

Purpose The perception of different stakeholder groups on governance dimensions, such as transparency, accountability and ethics, in the Islamic banking sector is examined, given the global growth of Islamic banking and its purpose of enhancing economic growth and development through Shari’ah-compliant instruments. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the stakeholders in Nigeria perceive each dimension differently. Design/methodology/approach The data for the study were collected using a survey questionnaire. Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents. The respondents are customers, employees and shareholders of the Islamic banking sector in Nigeria. Findings Findings show that ethics is highly perceived as the key dimension in governance for the Islamic banking sector, whilst a positive and significant relationship is observed between the variables. Based on the variance analysis, there were statistically significant differences in perception between the stakeholders groups in the Islamic banking system. However, similar positive perceptions are accorded towards the overall governance dimensions across stakeholder groups namely, customers, employees and shareholders. Originality/value This study will extend the current body of knowledge in the field of Islamic finance by providing insights into policy makers, operators and regulators of the Islamic banking sector in Nigeria on the prospective stakeholders’ level of perception of the governance dimension, which could form part of the solutions to many contemporary issues in the banking system. This contribution is important, considering the clear relationship among governance dimensions which should be viewed in light of Islamic ideals.


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