Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Islamic banking development'

Islamic banking is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the financial market industry, operating in over 75 countries through 300 institutions. While past literature has established the development of financial institutions as a determinant of economic growth, research on the correlation of the diffusion of Islamic banking with economic growth is limited. This study seeks to add to the literature by empirically analyzing the economic growth determinative power of Islamic banks. Confirming past research, Muslim prevalence in a population is found to be the most significant determinant of the diffusion of Islamic banks. Using this exogenous instrument in 2SLS regressions, results show that Islamic banks are not significantly correlated with economic growth. Most notably, including the Islamic banking instrument affects the strength of beta-convergence. Basic Solovian specifications show that convergence occurs; countries with higher initial GDP per capita grow more slowly. After accounting for the intensity of Islamic banking, this effect becomes much less statistically significant, suggesting that some of the effect of convergence may operate through the propensity to adopt Islamic banking. Empirical analysis disaffirms the hypothesis that Islamic banks minimize the explanatory power of legal origin on economic growth due to their independent implementation of Shariah law; the results show that accounting for Islamic banks has no effect on the determinative power of legal origin. Finally, the correlation of Islamic banking and financial deepening is largely dependent on legal origin, resulting in negative effects for countries with British legal origin and positive for those with French legal origin.

Islamic banking is a new industry which has attracted the attention of many economists in the world regarding its ability to operate successfully and its instruments for mobilising and allocating monetary resources (Deposits). Usually, in the majority of Islamic countries and in some non-Islamic countries, Islamic banking works as one part of a banking system. There are few countries where the banking system is completely Islamic and the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of them. In a country in which the entire system is Islamic there are more questions about its activities. The most important questions are: how can bank managers ensure the Shariah-compliance of banking system activities and how can they contribute to economic development? These are the two main questions of this research. In order to answer the first question, the Law of Usury-Free Banking in Iran was analysed and it was shown that this law is Shariah-compliant. However, the most important issue is to make sure that all banks in the country work according to the Law of Usury-Free Banking. In order to explore this semi-structured interviews were carried out with twelve interviewees including managers of the Central Bank and commercial banks and researchers. The result of the interviews was the introduction of several instruments used in the banking system of Iran for the supervision of banking activities and to ensure their Shariah-compliance. A new issue in this research is that being Shariah-compliant does not only mean utilising appropriate contracts for each project but also using deposits for the most efficient and profitable projects. This is because banks are the agents of the depositors and therefore they must use their deposits for the best possible projects. The vast majority of interviewees believe that Islamic banking system in Iran works in conformity with the Law of Usury-Free Banking in Iran. Regarding the second main question, this study utilised both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to obtain sufficient data to analyse it. The secondary data was taken from Iran‘s Central Bank Annual Reports, other Iranian banks‘ reports, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Statistics Centre of Iran. Although the main period of the study was 1989-2006, in order to make a comparative study the periods 1961-1978 and 1979-1988 were considered in some parts of the study. For a more accurate study, not only were the amounts of deposits and financial facilities in the periods before and after the Islamic Revolution compared, but their ratio to liquidity (M2) and GDP were also compared. Our finding was that Islamic banking was relatively more successful than conventional banks operating before the Islamic Revolution in Iran. One important aspect of the contribution of the banking system in Iran to economic development is direct investment. The Islamic banking system in Iran has carried out thousands of huge projects directly most of which cannot be undertaken by private sector including: highways, petrochemical industries, wood and paper industries, industrial farming and animal husbandry, automobile manufacture, the cement industry, railways and so on. In addition, primary data was collected via semi-structured interviews. The majority of interviewees believed that Islamic banking in Iran has had a positive effect on economic development.

This thesis is composed of three empirical chapters each of which examines separate segments of Turkish banking system from different perspectives. First empirical chapter investigates regional loan distribution of development banks. The findings in this chapter suggest that political connection has played a significant role in development lending. There is also geographical bias which leads to higher volumes of loans in the regions close to the capital city. Second empirical chapter examines Islamic banks and compares them with conventional banks in terms of profitability and competition grounds. The results reveal that Islamic banks earn more returns with respect to conventional banks. The results also suggest that the regulatory changes of the last decade improve market power of these banks. The last empirical chapter investigates micro structure of Repo and Reverse Repo Market of Turkey in which only commercial banks can transact. This chapter initially presents the network topologies of this market that helps one to understand the characteristics of complex network in this market. This chapter then computes a connectivity measure and investigates the drivers of connectivity out of domestic and external factors. Although results provide very rich insights, external factors dominate the behaviour of network in this market.

The development of human capital often faces challenges due to skills gaps in the labour market and this is exacerbated by the distinctive differences between the skills gained through education and those required by the private sector. Such imbalances challenge the success of the Emiratisation policy and therefore the intention of the government in creating a knowledge economy. The financial sector has a complex operating environment compared to other sectors because of the financial regulations and operational processes. This creates challenges in terms of having the right people in the right job, as well as complying with the Emiratisation policy. Human capital in Islamic financial services may stall the growth of the sector, due to the fact that there is a lack of essential training programmes, entry requirement and retention in this sector due to management and cultural differences, a lack of support and encouragement, absence of career progression or personal development, unrealistic expectations, competition and confidence issues and lack of teamwork for new entrants as well as senior managers. Consequently, understanding the factors influencing the challenges of Emiratisation will help improve the human resource development practices of senior Emirati managers working in Islamic banks. Therefore, this study develops a framework for human capital capacity building in Islamic banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in order to counteract the challenges of Emiratisation and improve the human resource development practices of senior Emirati managers working in Islamic banking. In the process, the study adopts the Spellerberg (2001) model from which attitude and behaviour can be taken into account given the interdependent relationship that exists between human and social capital. In responding to the aims of this study, a questionnaire was undertaken with seven Islamic banks in UAE. A total of 182 responses were received. Also, secondary analysis research was conducted to explore current best practice used in the international banking sector in regards to developing human capital. The statistical results reveal (eight) variables that significantly impact the use of human capital for Islamic banking in the UAE: (a) trust and reciprocity; (b) networking; (c) wasta; (d) attitude and behaviour; (e) uncertainty avoidance; (f) years of service in conventional bank; (g) Islamic values; networking; and (h) individual/collectivist. The findings indicated that investing in human capital and augmenting it along the way is highly important. Hence, organisations could be the trigger that generates knowledge through individuals who are part of the said organisations, which results in enhancing organisational performance and develops social capital as well. It also shows that cultural and social issues have a great impact on organisations and individuals’ attitude and behaviour. Further, it highlights that the principles of Islam influence human capital and social capital development owing to the fact that it shapes individuals and organisations perceptions, feelings and acts towards others. The study has significant implications for banks in the UAE in providing a direction for human capital building in Islamic banking. The framework developed in this study is a major contribution to current theories and practices in the field of human capital and social capital which demonstrate the Emiratisation policy challenges within the financial sector, as well as how cultural and social issues impact on organisations and employee performance in banks.

Islamic banks were minimally affected by the global financial crisis of 2008. This is largely attributed to their firm and sound economic principles. This has made Islamic finance a feasible alternative system of banking especially in pursuit of financial inclusion. Uganda like most third world countries has grappled with the challenge of access to credit with a big unbanked population. One of the reasons espoused in this paper for this problem has been high cost of credit access caused by prohibitively high interest rates that discourage people from attaining loans for their entrepreneurial ventures. Since Islamic banking is an interest free based mode of finance, it could have the key to unlocking the door to an inclusive economy. However, there is a desire for dedicated research and efforts from the authorities to develop an effective legal and regulatory framework for Islamic financial industry in Uganda. Attempts should be made to modify the existing structure to provide better products and quality service within the ambit of Islamic laws. While interest based banking has taken hundreds of years to mature to the level where it is today, expecting the same maturity from Islamic banking in its nascent stage will be overly ambitious. To develop an economic system truly reflective of the sacred principles of Islam, all stakeholders should understand the limitations at this stage and work towards its advancement.

The following dissertation contains two distinct empirical essays which contribute to the overall field of Financial Economics. Chapter 1, entitled “Financial Inclusion and Economic Development in OIC Member Countries,” examines whether the presence of Islamic finance promotes development and alleviates poverty. To do so, we estimate the influence of financial inclusion variables on development and poverty variables for OIC countries. Using data from the World Bank, we use dynamic panel analysis using methodology similar to Beck et al (2000) to study the effects of financial inclusion on economic development and use simple cross-sectional analysis similar to Beck et al (2004) to study the effects on poverty alleviation. We find that the countries with Islamic finance tend to outperform the rest of the world. We believe that the ability of financial institutions offering Shari’a compliant services to bring otherwise excluded people under the financial system plays a major role in increased development and reduced poverty in those countries. The results support our view that financial inclusion is causing development. Chapter 2 entitled, “Asymmetric Market Reactions to the 2007-08 Financial Crisis: From Wall Street to Main Street,” examines the impact of significant news events during the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis on the abnormal stock returns for portfolios of financial and real sector firms. We recognize 17 significant news events from 2007 and 2008 and create equity portfolios using daily CRSP data from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2009. We estimate event announcement interval abnormal returns in the context of an asset pricing model similar to Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997). We document significant negative abnormal returns for the portfolio of non-financial firms, and the smallest firms exhibit the largest negative abnormal returns, an indication of a significant spillover of financial market news to real sector stock returns. Smaller financial firms also exhibit negative abnormal event returns, and these results are driven by broker-dealer, depository, holding-investment, and real estate firms. The results provide new evidence regarding the incorporation of news events into asset prices during financial crises.

Le but de cette thèse est d'apporter des éléments de réponse à la question : comment la finance islamique peut constituer une réponse endogène et sociétale aux besoins des populations musulmanes pour favoriser efficacement le développement et lutter contre l'exclusion ? Il s'agit de mettre en perspective ses fondements éthiques et de montrer qu'elle ne se réduit pas à une simple réingénierie de la finance conventionnelle avec une conformité discutable aux règles de la Charia sans pour autant être cohérente avec ses principes et idéaux. En particulier, la thèse vise la formulation de recommandations pour le développement de la finance islamique dans un environnement bancaire dual comme celui de la République Islamique de Mauritanie. Cette forme alternative de financement, bien qu'ayant enregistré des taux de croissance importants dans plusieurs pays au cours des dernières années, n'en demeure pas moins face à de nombreux défis. En effet, les institutions de finance islamique opèrent le plus souvent dans des environnements économiques et financiers qui ont été conçus pour la finance conventionnelle. Ce manque de prise en compte explicite, par le système juridique et réglementaire, de l'ensemble des spécificités de cette finance entrave son plein développement et compromet sa compétitivité. Le cas particulier de la Mauritanie occupe une place centrale dans le cadre de cette thèse. En effet, la Banque Centrale de Mauritanie a agréé au cours des dernières années plusieurs banques islamiques dont le nombre à la fin décembre 2021 était de sept sur les dix-huit banques que compte le pays. Aussi, toutes les banques conventionnelles Mauritaniennes disposent de fenêtres islamiques. De même, une nouvelle loi bancaire encadrant explicitement l'activité des banques offrant des services financiers islamiques a été promulguée en juillet 2018. Cette forte croissance du nombre de banques offrant des services financiers islamiques pose la question de comment relever les défis d'un développement harmonieux du secteur bancaire et financier en Mauritanie. En particulier, les banques islamiques auront-elles un environnement économique, juridique et réglementaire propice à leur développement ? La demande est-elle suffisante pour un tel nombre de banques ? Sur quels leviers miser pour la viabilité et la performance des banques islamiques en Mauritanie ?
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how Islamic finance can constitute an endogenous and societal response to the needs of Muslim populations to effectively promote development and fight exclusion. It's about putting its strong ethical foundations into perspective and showing that it cannot be reduced to a simple reengineering of conventional finance with questionable compliance with the rules of Charia without being consistent with its principles and ideals. In particular, the thesis aims to formulate recommendations for the development of Islamic finance in a dual banking environment tainted with risks like that of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. This alternative form of financing, although having recorded significant growth rates in several countries over the past few years, still faces many challenges that must be met to ensure its sustainability. Indeed, Islamic finance institutions most often operate in economic and financial environments that were designed for conventional finance. This lack of explicit consideration, by the legal and regulatory system, of all the specificities of this finance hinders its full development and compromises its competitiveness. The case of Mauritania occupies a central place in the context of this thesis. Indeed, the Central Bank of Mauritania has approved several Islamic banks in recent years, the number of which at the end of December 2021 was seven out of the eighteen banks in the country. Also, all conventional Mauritanian banks have Islamic windows. Similarly, a new banking law explicitly regulating the activity of banks offering Islamic financial services wasenacted in July 2018. This strong growth in the number of banks offering Islamic financial services raises the question of how to meet the challenges of a harmonious development of the banking and financial sector in Mauritania. Will Islamic banks have an economic, legal and regulatory environment conducive to their development? Is the demand sufficient for such several banks? On what levers to bet for the viability and performance of Islamic banks in Mauritania?

The thesis analyzes macro-economic determinants and roles of financial sector development.

The literature argues that the size and efficiency of both banking systems and financial markets - the two major components of a financial system - matter for economic development. In the same vein, the quality of financial institutions and regulations are instrumental in the construction of a strong financial system.

We study several aspects of financial sector development in relation to three recent phenomena, namely, the rise of Islamic banking and finance, the increasing interest for emerging stock markets, and the growing remittance flows.

This thesis is made up of three essays.

The first essay extends the literature on the determinants of financial sector development, from the angle of culture. We show that, on average, Islamic finance favors the development of the banking sector in Muslim countries. We provide evidence that several countries have indeed been successful in launching a new, Shariah-compliant, banking system, while not harming the existing, conventional, banking sector. Our empirical analysis uses a newly-constructed original database on the size and performance of Islamic deposit banks globally over the period 2000 to 2005.

The second essay focuses on stock markets, in particular, the less-studied emerging equity markets. We confirm traditional literature findings on unconditional stock returns, over a panel of 53 Major and Frontier markets. Mainly, volatility is high, big surprises happen, and return correlations with the rest of the world are low but have been rising over the last decades. In spite of large differences in market size and liquidity, Frontier market returns are qualitatively similar to Major markets', except correlations, which are lower in Frontier markets. At current correlation levels, the latter continue to bring substantial diversification benefits to international investors.

The last essay examines the relationship between remittances and economic growth. It confirms that remittances are important for developing countries as they stimulate domestic investment. It then demonstrates, theoretically and empirically, that improving the access to bank deposit accounts is crucial to channel remittances to more productive uses. This is even more true when the access to international borrowing is costly.

The 2008-2009 financial crisis has propelled the improvement of financial systems to the top of policymakers' agendas. Our work contributes to a better understanding of the importance of finance in economic outcomes. It also brings a novel perspective on the determinants of financial systems./

Notre thèse a pour objet l'étude des déterminants et des rôles macro-économiques des secteurs financiers dans le monde.

Selon la littérature scientifique, la taille et l'efficacité des systèmes bancaires et des marchés financiers - les deux composantes principales d'un système financier - sont importantes pour le développement économique. Il apparaît également que la qualité des institutions et des régulations financières contribuent à la création d'un système financier fort.

Au travers de trois essais, nous examinons plusieurs aspects du développement du secteur financier, qui sont en relation avec trois phénomènes récents; à savoir: la croissance de la finance islamique, l'intérêt grandissant pour les marchés boursiers émergents, et l'augmentation des flux de transferts de fonds des migrants.

Dans le premier essai, nous nous intéressons aux facteurs culturels comme déterminants des secteurs financiers et, en particulier, au rôle de la religion musulmane. Nous montrons que, en moyenne, la finance islamique favorise le développement du secteur bancaire dans les pays musulmans. Plusieurs pays ont en effet réussi à développer un nouveau secteur bancaire compatible avec la Shariah, sans porter ombrage au secteur bancaire non islamique avec lequel il co-existe. Notre analyse empirique est fondée sur une base de données nouvelle et originale. Celle-ci a pour intérêt de fournir des indicateurs de taille et de performance des banques islamiques de dépôt dans le monde, pour la période 2000-2005.

Dans le deuxième essai, nous explorons les rendements inconditionnels obtenus sur les marchés boursiers, en particulier les marchés émergents d'actions. Notre analyse d'un large panel de 53 marchés émergents "Majeurs" et "Frontières" confirme les résultats traditionnellement observés dans la littérature. Ainsi, pour l'essentiel, les deux types de marchés sont volatils et émaillés d'événements extrêmes. De plus, les rendements des marchés émergents sont faiblements corrélés avec ceux du reste du monde, même si ces corrélations ont augmenté au cours des derniers décennies. Malgré d'importantes différences en terme de taille et de liquidité, les rendements sur marchés "Frontières" sont qualitativement similaires à ceux des marchés "Majeurs", à l'exception des corrélations. Ces dernières sont en effet actuellement plus faibles dans les marchés "Frontières", qui continuent dès lors à offrir d'importants bénéfices de diversification aux investisseurs internationaux.

Dans le dernier essai, nous examinons la relation entre les transferts d'argent des migrants et la croissance économique. Nous confirmons l'idée que les transferts de fonds des migrants sont importants pour les pays en voie de développement. Mais surtout, nous démontrons, de manière théorique et empirique, qu'il est crucial de faciliter dans ces pays l'accès aux comptes de dépôt bancaires, afin de transformer une plus grande part des transferts des migrants en investissements productifs. Ceci est d'autant plus vrai quand l'accès aux autres sources de capitaux internationaux est coûteux.

En conclusion, la crise financière de 2008-2009 a fait de l'amélioration des systèmes financiers la priorité de nombreuses politiques économiques. Dans cette perspective, notre travail apporte une contribution à une compréhension plus fine de l'importance de la finance pour l'économie, ainsi qu'une vision novatrice des déterminants des systèmes financiers.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Baitul Maal Tamwil (BMT) is a community-based and cooperative microfinance approach, and combines economic and socio-religious objectives in providing financial services to poor people and helping the needy participate in a dynamic Muslim society. The study objective is to examine the development of the BMT sector in Yogyakarta and in particular to assess the role and performance of and assesses the extent to which the BMT's philosophy and modus operandi is sustainable in achieving the dual missions of poverty alleviation following Islamic principles. This study addresses research questions of how and what role of the BMT institutions, as the Islamic microfinance model in the Javanese Muslim community, and to what extent the BMT sector is sustainable.