IMPLEMENTING ESG CONCEPT IN SHARIA STOCK SCREENING PROCESS

Islam places great importance on moral, environmental and social dimension. Sustainable development is centric to the overlapping factors both Islamic finance and Socially Responsible Investment, which are the economy, the environment and social impact. In contrary, Empirical evidence concerning ESG practice of IFIs and Sharia compliant companies is still lacking. The investment portfolio should therefore be scrutinized on the criteria of justice, social welfare and sustainability. This paper aims to identify sustainability report of Sharia Stocks companies and propose i-ESG index for sharia stocks screening in Indonesia. A qualitative study is used to describe sustainability action doing by Sharia compliant companies listed on Indeks Saham Syariah Indonesia (ISSI) in October 2019. This study found that, almost all the companies shows their Good Corporate Governance, but only a few of company have their sustainability report. Therefore a novel parameter to screen the sharia stocks screening process is urgently needed.

Shariah-compliant equities and Shariah screening: need for convergence of ethical screening of stocks with Shariah screening

PurposeThis study explores the practical application of the Shariah screening process and how it could be enhanced by converging the same with the ethical screening of stocks.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a qualitative research methodology by combining the qualitative descriptive approach and content analysis.FindingsThe findings of this research suggest that there is scope to converge ethical screening of stocks with Shariah Screening as the lex loci applicable to Shariah screening is derived from Shariah, which considers ethics as part of determining its rules.Practical implicationsThe data from this study reveal several practical applications, the ultimate goal of which is to help the policymakers and stakeholders understand the relevance of the Shariah screening of stocks and get a streamlined screening process, paving the way to enhance the same using ethical screening criteria to develop its function to become much more relevant irrespective of the denomination of faiths.Originality/valueThis is original research, which is expected to contribute to understanding the extent to which Shariah screening can be enhanced by integrating the ethical stock screening dimension to it.

Towards Developing a Conceptual Framework for Islamic Unit Trust Funds

There is increasing interest among investors in one of the latest investment vehicles - unit trusts. Unit trusts have several advantages as investments in comparison to other investment vehicles, as they are managed by fund managers and tied down by a trust deed. These advantages can be traced back to the investment diversification, professional management of the unit trust and the liquidity flow that can be obtained through sale and purchase of the unit trust. This paper presents an argument towards the development of the conceptual framework for Islamic unit trust funds, explored using references to the regulations in Malaysia, reviewing the types of unit trust funds, their distinctive features, Shariah principles that operate in the management of unit trust industry in Malaysia and the contributions that can be generated from unit trust fund to society. Some of the essential features of Islamic unit trust funds depend on the prohibition of riba, gharar and maysir, strict stock screening processes and purification processes. The main challenges to the unit trust industry are also discussed.

ISRA-Bloomberg Sharīʿah stock screening and income cleansing methodologies: a conceptual paper

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain and critically analyse the Sharīʿah screening criteria and cleansing process for income generated from stocks with a special focus on a newly developed ISRA-Bloomberg methodology. Design/methodology/approach The paper focuses on the methodology of ISRA-Bloomberg in terms of Sharīʿah screening of stocks and the income cleansing process. To achieve this objective, this paper adopts a descriptive approach. Findings The methodology of ISRA-Bloomberg is unique in terms of its criterion for screening stocks, the cleansing process and coverage of the universe of stocks. It facilitates the investors by offering a novel colour-coding scheme to indicate the Sharīʿah compliance of a stock. It also provides the exact ratios of the Sharīʿah-compliance criteria to the investors so they can closely observe changes in the trend of ratios and decide beforehand whether or not a company is likely to remain within the Sharīʿah-compliant list. The paper further discusses the issues in the screening and cleansing practices faced by the industry. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to the criteria of screening and income purification of stocks which have been used by ISRA-Bloomberg from a Sharīʿah perspective. Practical/implications The robust screening criteria and comprehensive analysis of the stocks will enhance the confidence of Islamic capital market participants. The investors, regulators and index providers will be equally able to benefit from this initiative. Originality/value The paper focuses on the recently established methodology of ISRA-Bloomberg, which has not been discussed in the literature until now. The methodology, because of its exceptionality, may add a new dimension to Sharīʿah screening and cleansing of stocks.