Research

Hasnan Baber ·Malaysian Journal of Consumer and Family Economics ·2019

The study is aimed to investigate the gap between the level of service quality expectations and perception and its impact on customer satisfaction in Islamic banks of Malaysia. Shariah Compliance dimension was included in the SERVQUAL model of service quality. A 29 item questionnaire was employed to collect data from 721 customers of selected banks of Malaysia. In this study, data were statistically analysed through reliability analysis, paired sample t-test, exploratory factor analysis, regression analysis and followed by confirmed factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was used to measure service quality perception and customer satisfaction. This study revealed that there is a partial significant gap between expected and perceived service quality level except in Shariah Compliance and tangibility. The study suggested that there is a positive and significant impact of modified multidimensional SERVQUAL quality scale on customer satisfaction. Addition of Shariah compliance dimension showed the highest contributing factor among all dimensions and thus its inclusion was justified. The study was original and novel to find a quality gap and its impact on Malaysian Islamic bank customers and it will help policymakers of Malaysia and other countries to improve to meet customer expectations.

Ai-Xin Lee · Chee-Wooi Hooy ·Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies ·2020 ·JEL: G21, G28, G32

This paper examines the relationship between state ownership and banks’ risk-taking in nine Asian emerging markets for the period 2009 to 2017. The finding shows that state-owned banks are associated with higher risk-taking in terms of credit risk and return volatility. In addition, we investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanism with monitoring committee, board independence and gender diversity on state-owned banks’ risk-taking. We find that the presence of monitoring committee on board has a reducing effect on state-owned banks’ risk-taking. We further argue that independent directors help to reduce banks’ risk-taking where their supervision should be robust enough even if there is huge government intervention. Nonetheless, we do not find strong evidence on the role of female directors. In a nutshell, board functions play a crucial role in monitoring and supervising banks’ investment decisions to prevent excessive risk-taking from the government, which is relatively important in the context of Asian emerging markets.

Fazelina Sahul Hamid · Muhamed Zulkhibri ·Institutions and Economies ·2019 ·JEL: E44; E52

This paper examines the effectiveness of bank lending channels in ASEAN countries. The main objective of this paper is to identify whether the effectiveness of bank lending channels in ASEAN differs based on the countries’ financial structure, banks’ fundamentals and ownership type. The study makes use of unbalanced panel data of 214 commercial banks in nine ASEAN countries for the period from 2001 to 2015. Analysis using dynamic GMM estimators finds that the bank lending channel is more effective in CLMV countrieswhich have a less-developed financial sector compared to ASEAN-5 countries which have a moredeveloped financial sector. Particularly, we find that smaller banks with less liquidity have a broader scope to expand their financing portfolios when interest rates rise. We also find that foreign banks in ASEAN-5 countries andstate-owned banks in ASEAN countries weaken the effect of monetary policy transmissions. However, local banks are vulnerable to changes in monetary policy. Further analyses confirm that the influence of ownership structure on credit growth is partly driven by the differences in the banks’ specific characteristics.Our findings suggest that theeffectiveness of bank lending channel depends on financial structure, bank fundamentals and ownership structure. The regulators need to take this into account to ensure that the changes in monetary policy achieve the desired objectives.

Maisyarah Stapah @ Salleh · Bayu Taufiq Possumah · Nizam Ahmat ·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2018

This study investigates the determinants of Net Profit Margin (NPM) in Malaysia’s Islamic banking system for the period of 2011-2015 by using static panel data analysis. In Malaysia, conventional banks through its Islamic subsidiary banks are dominating the Islamic banking system in terms of total assets, total loans and total deposits. Therefore this paper attempts to investigate the impact of these Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks towards the NPM. In relation to that, the impact of the conventional parent banks’ Net Interest Margin (NIM) towards its Islamic subsidiary banks’ NPM is also investigated. For the first objective, the displayed results shows positive relationship indicating that the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is higher than the full-fledge Islamic banks’ NPM. While the empirical results on the banks’ specific variables suggest that size, risk aversion and operating cost are positively related to NPM. However, credit risk tends to reduce NPM. Besides that, this study also finds that market concentrations and GDP growth will influence NPM in negative ways whilst inflation and Islamic stock market developments will increase NPM. Liquidity however is found insignificant to NPM. As for the second objective, the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is observed as being independent from its conventional parent banks’ NIM.

Mongi Lassoued ·Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance ·2018 ·JEL: G18; G21; G32; G33

The study of credit risk is a great interest and the debate over the relative credit risk of Islamic banks remains open. The study aims at addressing this key question: Do Islamic banks (IBs) have higher credit risk than conventional banks (CBs) in Malaysia? Accordingly, some papers tried to answer this question but they were performed using cross-country data. The cross-country data should have been treated more cautiously since every country has its own developmental backgrounds and regional resulting in different characteristics of banking industry. Moreover, different financial systems that give support or limit the operation of Islamic banks will also make more difficult to compare the data of each country. For that reason, it is suggested to take suitable control for heterogeneity across countries to obtain consistently good conclusions about the credit risk. Different from the cross-country works, this study will focus on the country-level data of Malaysia. A panel data model was applied and it was used the generalized least squares (GLS) model and a yearly bank level data to evaluate the credit risk of 22 conventional banks and 17 Islamic banks in Malaysia. In addition, the study period, which lasted from 2005 to 2015, seems to be representative since it encompasses the period of the sub-prime crisis. This project is an extension of the study begun by Čihák and Hesse (2008) that used cross-country bank data such Malaysia. The results are particularly interesting and do not confirm the results generated by these researchers. The main contribution that this work will hopefully make is to show the reasons which account for the Islamic banks' higher degree of credit risk, and particularly to provide additional insights and complement the existing cross-country studies on Islamic bank stability.

Moau Yong Toh · Christopher Gan · Zhaohua Li ·Emerging Markets Finance and Trade ·2018 ·JEL: E44; G10; G21

This article examines the impact of stock market liquidity on bank liquidity creation in Malaysia. Our results indicate that a stock market enhances the liquidity creation of banks both on and off the banks’ balance sheets when the market liquidity increases. Further analysis shows that the positive impact of stock market liquidity is evident on the liquidity creation of publicly listed banks as the banks’ cost of equity finance becomes cheaper. Our results are robust to the influence of the 2008 financial crisis and different estimation methods. Our results refute the traditional view that increased stock market liquidity “steals” banks’ business and crowds out bank liquidity creation.

Moau Yong Toh ·Journal of Asian Economics ·2019 ·JEL: G21; G28

This paper examines the effects of bank capital ratios on liquidity creation and business diversification for Malaysia. Annual data are analyzed for 28 commercial banks for the period 2001⬜2017. We observe that the average equity capital and capital adequacy ratios trended upward over the period from 11 to 17% and from 19 to 27%, respectively. In connection with higher bank capital ratios, we find a general shift in bank focus away from traditional lending and deposit taking activity that creates liquidity for the economy toward fee-based services and other transactional business. More nuanced patterns emerge when banks are differentiated by size, stock market listing, and domestic versus foreign ownership. In particular, while traditional on-balance sheet liquidity creation is reduced across the board in connection with higher capital ratios, off-balance sheet liquidity creation (e.g., credit commitments) declines more selectively for larger, listed, and domestic banks. We infer that smaller, non-listed, and foreign owned banks have a competitive advantage in providing the more personalized services needed for off-balance sheet liquidity creation. Further, while an increase in business diversification in connection with higher capital ratios is broadly observed, the increase is not uniformly evident for larger and domestic banks.

Fazelina Sahul Hamid ·Journal of Asian Economics ·2020

We analyze the lending cyclicality of 213 ASEAN commercial banks over the period 2001–2015. The findings indicate that lending by private banks is procyclical while lending by state banks is countercyclical. Long-term liabilities also move countercyclically for state banks whereas funding for non-state banks in the form of deposit and long-term liabilities is procyclical. Greater lending cyclicality is observed for both private and state banks in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam (CMLV) compared to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore (ASEAN-5). Lending of non-ASEAN based foreign banks shows greater procyclicality than that of domestic banks for the ASEAN-5 countries, although not for the CMLV countries. During the global financial crisis, lending by non-ASEAN based foreign banks contracted sharply even as lending by ASEAN based foreign banks was unaffected. Overall, our results confirm that bank ownership influences lending and funding sensitivity to economic fluctuations.

Khanifah Khanifah · Pancawati Hardiningsih · Asri Darmaryantiko · Iryantika Iryantik · Udin Udin ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2020 ·JEL: E44, M14, Q56

A series of corporate failures and financial crises have raised attention to organizational governance issues, especially for financial institutions. In the banking system, corporate governance further plays a unique role because of the uniqueness of the banking organizations. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance disclosure on bank performance by building a corporate governance disclosure index (CGDI) for 10 Islamic banks operating in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The data used in this study are secondary data taken from annual reports and sourced from the official websites of each banks include Iran Exchange, Stock Market Quotes and Financial News, and Bursa Malaysia. This study uses content analysis of the annual bank report within five years (2014-2018). The results show that Islamic banks comply with 72.4% of the attributes discussed in the CGDI. The most frequently reported and disclosed elements are board structure and audit committee. The regression results provide evidence that Islamic banks with a higher level of corporate governance disclosure reported high operating performance measured by ROA. In contrast to the expectation, the financial performance of ROE and Tobins'q are not significantly related to the disclosure of sharia bank governance.

Sakiru Adebola Solarin · Shawkat Hammoudeh · Muhammad Shahbaz ·Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money ·2018 ·JEL: C58; E42; E43; G01; G21

This paper contributes to the existing empirical literature on savings and Islamic banking systems by comprehensively examining the determinants of Islamic banking deposits in Malaysia. Initially, we examine the factors affecting the deposits in Islamic banking by types, which include investment deposits, demand deposits, savings deposits, ringgit Tawarruq deposits, dollar Tawarruq deposits and negotiable instrument deposits. Additionally, we investigate the determinants of deposits in Islamic banking by holders including household deposits, business deposits, financial institution deposits, federal government deposits, state government deposits and statutory agency deposits. We also examine the factors affecting the total deposits in the Islamic banking system. After confirming that the variables are stationary in the first difference through the use of the residual augmented least squares (RALS) procedure of Meng et al. (2014), we use the break-augmented cointegration methods of Johansen et al. (2000) and Giles and Godwin (2012) to check the cointegrating relationships and generate the long run coefficients of the variables. The results show that industrial production index, real interest rates on fixed and savings deposits have positive impacts on several components of Islamic banking deposits and the total deposits of Islamic banks, while real interest rates on deposits in commercial banks have a negative impact. However, the roles of both the Shariah index and the real exchange rate are mixed.

Abdo Yousef Qaid Saad · Amer M Alhusini Alshehri ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2021 ·JEL: M00, M31, G1, G2, G21

The study aims to measures the service quality of Islamic banking in Malaysia from non-Malaysian customers’ perspective based on the six different dimensions of the SERVQUAL model, namely, Shariah, assurance, reliability, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. This study surveyed 100 non-Malaysian respondents from 25 different countries who have first-hand experience with Islamic banking services in Malaysia. The collected data were analysed by using the SPSS v23 for reliability analysis and descriptive statistics. The results indicates that customers’ impressions of Islamic banks’ service quality in Malaysia did not meet their standards. The independent variables, namely, compliance, assurance, reliability and empathy have positively affected customer satisfaction, while two dimensions, namely, tangibility and responsiveness does not significantly influence non-Malaysian customer satisfaction in the Islamic banking system in Malaysia. The findings of the study suggested that the Islamic banks should develop and obey the customer perception’s policy by following customers’ expectations and the results are also expected to include recommendations for improving the level of satisfaction of the Islamic banking system’s foreign clients in Malaysia. Since this study was limited to Islamic banks in Malaysia, the findings may not be applicable to other traditional banks.

Muhammad Hafiz Abd Rashid · Muhammad Iskandar Hamzah · Amirul Afif Muhamat · Aida Azlina Mansor · Rahayu hasanordin ·Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business ·2022 ·JEL: M10, M30, M31

Studies examining the interplay between brand transgression and brand forgiveness is notably sparse especially in the context of Southeast Asian banking customers. The purpose of this research is to add to the existing literature by examining the impact of brand transgression, which is represented by negative past experience image incongruence, and corporate wrongdoing on brand forgiveness among Islamic banking customers in Malaysia. The increasing surge in interest in unfavorable brand relationships has sparked concerns about its impact on brand forgiveness. As a result, this theoretical argument, which lacks empirical proof, has to be statistically tested. The current study was conducted utilizing a non-probability purposive sampling technique among clients in the Klang Valley who had poor experiences with Islamic banking services. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple regression on a total of 211 valid replies. The findings show that two elements of brand transgression, image inconsistency, and corporate wrongdoing, have a major impact on brand forgiveness. However, the other dimension namely negative past experience was found to be non-significant to brand forgiveness. Research implications and directions for future studies are also discussed in this paper.

Muhamed Zulkhibri ·Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science ·2018

Purpose This paper aims to examine the distributional differences of Islamic bank financing responses to financing rate across bank-specific characteristics in dual banking system. The study also aims to provide understanding of how efficiently Islamic banks perform their roles as suppliers of capital for businesses and entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach The study uses panel regression methodology covering all Islamic banks in Malaysia. The study estimates the benchmark model for Islamic bank financing with respect to bank characteristics and monetary policy. Findings The evidence suggests that bank-specific characteristics are important in determining Islamic financing behaviour. The Islamic financing behaviour is consistent with conventional lending behaviour that the Islamic bank financing operates depending on the level of bank size, liquidity and capital. There is no significant difference between Islamic bank financing and conventional bank lending behaviour with respect to changes in monetary policy. Originality/value Many problems and challenges relating to Islamic financing instruments, financial markets and regulations must be addressed and resolved. In practice, it would be a good idea if Islamic banks move away from developing debt-based instruments and concentrate more efforts to develop profit and loss sharing instruments.