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This paper analyzes the gold Murabahah contract, which tends to be very popular in the Indonesian Islamic banking industry. As the contract is very sensitive to the gold price movement and speculative motive, a comprehensive assessment is done to assess the behavior of the gold price movement, behavior of the investors and the limits of the gold Murabahah contract. It proposes recommendations to manage the gold Murabahah contract and to mitigate its potential risks.

The paper examines the gold price, termination of contract and limitation of the amount of funds in the gold Murabahah transactions by using quantitative formulas, such as variance, expected prices and probability of occurrence. In addition, it includes a qualitative analysis of the historical pattern of daily gold prices in the past 12 years. As such, a combination of both approaches generates a comprehensive analysis and recommendations to policymakers, Islamic bankers and investors.

It finds some interesting outcomes with regard to the behavior of gold prices, behavior of investors regarding the gold Murabahah contract and intention of investors to terminate gold Murabahah contracts prior to their maturity date. Such outcomes become the material for the policy recommendations of the paper. Particularly, it proposes the margin of the Murabahah gold contract, tenor of the contract, down payment and a review of the base gold Murabahah regulation to manage the gold Murabahah contract and to mitigate risks.

The paper does not consider macroeconomic variables such as inflation, exchange rate and economic growth which may affect the movement of the world’s gold prices. It does not examine the gold Murabahah contract in other countries, as it is believed that the gold Murabahah contract is very popular only in the Indonesian Islamic banking industry.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper examines the gold Murabahah contract in relation to the Indonesian Islamic banking industry.

This study aims to explore the prospects of istijrar financing in the Islamic banking of Bangladesh. Istijrar is a supply sale contract that facilitates recurrent transactions under a master agreement without needing a deal-to-deal agreement. Murabahah financing in Bangladesh is being criticized for Shari’ah violations, which can be minimized if istijrar financing is integrated and applied.

The study uses a qualitative approach, primarily using a semistructured interview method to collect the primary data. The study conducted 13 one-to-one interviews with leading Islamic banking experts in the country, including Shari’ah scholars, Islamic bankers and regulators. Besides, the study consults with classical and contemporary fiqhi sources to realize the status of istijrar sale in Islamic law. Thematic analysis is performed to explore the qualitative data.

The study finds that istijrar financing has great prospects in the Islamic banking of Bangladesh. Istijrar is applicable in consumer financing and can be offered as an alternative or supplement to murabahah. Also, postimport murabahah financing can be structured with istijrar, while it can also be used in export financing. Besides, a few challenges should be dealt with before offering istijrar, such as proper structure, lack of literacy, stakeholders’ awareness, Shari’ah and regulatory approval and alignment with the law of the land.

Murabahah financing is dominant on the asset side of Islamic banks’ balance sheets in Bangladesh. Murabahah practice in Bangladesh is frequently criticized for some possible Shari’ah violations. Also, more documents are needed for each murabahah operation, which eventually accelerates the costs. Applying istijrar would minimize these issues as it does not require a new contract for each deal. Multiple supplies can be done under a single agreement. Besides, istijrar reduces documentation hassle and transaction costs. Istijrar would be an easy practice and benefit the bank and its clients.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge and the Islamic banking industry. The existing studies have not adequately addressed the potential of istijrar in Islamic banking. In addition, this study will be an eye-opener for Islamic bankers to develop new products with istijrar.

This study aims to analyse the role of corporate governance in moderating the effects of murabahah, mudharabah and musyarakah financing on the financing risk and financial performance of Islamic banks.

The population for this study covered Islamic banks in Indonesia. Purposive sampling was performed, and statistical analysis was conducted using moderating regression analysis by selecting among the common, fixed and random effects models.

The results showed that murabahah financing has a positive effect on financing risk; conversely, mudharabah financing has a negative effect on financing risk. By contrast, musyarakah financing has no effect on financing risk. However, corporate governance weakens the influence of murabahah financing on financing risk and increases that of mudharabah financing on financing risk. Further, corporate governance cannot weaken the effect of musyarakah financing on financing risk. Additionally, financing risk reduces financial performance.

This research focusses only on Indonesian Islamic banks; future research should be extended to Islamic insurance and Islamic micro finance.

The results serve as input for government regulations on corporate governance in Islamic bank financing and encourage Islamic banks to diversify their financing proportionally.

This research can be used for optimising Islamic bank financing to empower the realty sector and reduce poverty.

Research on the role of corporate governance as a moderating variable in reducing financing risk in Islamic banks remains limited.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the pattern of contract agreement process to map various banks’ position in perceiving Sharia conduct. This is done by incorporating the dynamics of culture, market demand and Sharia literacy in different banks. Finding of this research will serve as the formula to map the latent degree of Islamic bank’s commitment to their strategic vision and identity as an Islamic-based financial institution.

This research develops its theoretical background in classical and contemporary literature review on murabahah contract in Islamic perspective. Focus group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview are conducted on 32 bankers (in 14 Islamic banks), two National Sharia Council, five academicians and three central bank representatives as an input for qualitative analysis. Content analysis is utilized in this paper to emphasize the process of discovering the relationship between dynamic factors affecting contract agreement process in murabahah scheme in Indonesian banking.

There are four dimensions affecting the contract agreement: fairness to customer, country regulation, perceived business practicality and product characteristic. The four dimensions are assumed to be influenced with categories proposed, as the category item is mostly repeated and is perceived to be significant in the participant’s perspective.

This research will be beneficial in mapping the determinant of degree of Sharia compliance in Sharia banking in Indonesia, focusing on the contract agreement process.

The objective of the chapter is to discuss the role of wa’d (promise) to mitigate risk in different Islamic banking products. The chapter will illustrate the element of wa’d in different Islamic banking products in Malaysia.

The study has adopted the document review method to get information on different banking products. Moreover, it conducted semi-structured interviews with bankers to get in-depth information.

The study finds out that wa’d plays a vital role in structuring several products including retail products, trade financing products, and treasury products. Along with the unilateral wa’d there is a usage of double wa’d (wa’dan) in some product structures. In most of the products, wa’d is included as a risk mitigation instrument along with other major underlying Shari’ah contracts. Some Shari’ah issues are involved with these products namely the Shari’ah rulings related to wa’dan, “form over substance,” etc.

This is an in-depth field study which adds new knowledge on wa’d-based products. The experience of Malaysia might be a lesson for other countries to minimize risk in their Islamic banking products.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze individual financing instruments and portfolios of instruments, and find the location of the most efficient portfolio financing. The Indonesian Islamic banking industry is very promising with four dominant financing instruments, namely, Mudarabah, Musharakah, Murabahah and Istishna. Each instrument has unique pattern of return, expected return and risk. Moreover, the variances of two, three and four financing instruments suggest the importance of identifying the most prospective financing instruments. Further, the most efficient portion of the most prospective financing is determined by constructing an efficient portfolio financing frontier.

Technically, it uses risk and return theory to compute risk, return and variance of an instrument and set of financing instruments. In addition, it uses an efficient portfolio frontier curve to locate all combination of the most progressive portfolio financing and finds the most efficient portfolio financing.

It finds some interesting finding with regard to the pattern of return, characteristics of a financing instrument and groups of financing instruments. The most essential finding of the paper is the location of the most efficient portfolio financing.

The information and finding of this paper benefit the Indonesian Islamic banking industry to optimize the performance of an individual and groups of financing instruments. Particularly, for the most progressive financing instruments, it proposes the combinations of portfolio financing which give optimum output.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first paper trying to analyze and construct an efficient portfolio financing frontier of the Indonesian Islamic banking industry.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the existing practices of the Islamic banks in providing financing to the customers who have a requirement to purchase a finished property and to examine the existing products used by the Islamic banks in this regard by providing an insight into the modus operandi of these products. In doing this, attempt is made to find out the most famous product offered by the Islamic banks in this regard and to find out whether in reality, Malaysian Islamic banking industry has moved away from Bai Bithaman Ajil (BBA) or not.

This is a qualitative research, largely library-based, and it will consist of secondary sources such as books, journals, articles and other sources related to the Islamic house financing in Malaysia for finished properties. Recent information of the practises of the banks in this regard is obtained from the official websites of the banks.

It is found from this study that majority of Islamic Banks in Malaysia prefer to use the Commodity Murabahah facility for finished property. This finding contradicts with the observations made by some scholars who state that in Malaysia, BBA was initially used, and nowadays, the use of Musharakah Mutanaqisah is more common. The reason why Commodity Murbahah has gained popularity is because of the fact that via the Bursa Suq Al Sila platform, it is easy, swift, reliable, profitable, cheaper, convenient and has zero risk to do this type of transaction at the comfort of the office. It is recommended in this paper to use Musharakah Mutanaqisah, as this contract is an innovative contract that is classified as an equity contract under shariah where risk is shared between the parties. There is need to conduct further research to implement Musharakah Mutanaqisah in Malaysia, specifically to reduce the risk that Islamic Banks will bear by practicing this contract.

The findings of this paper might create confusion among readers, as some may perceive that the finding of the paper is not new as BBA has been dominating Islamic house financing industry from the inception of Islamic banking in the country, and BBA and Murabahah are similar in nature, and as such, commodity Murabahah is also a Murabahah transaction. The reality that needs to be understood is that the way BBA was or is practised in Malaysia in relation to Islamic house financing is that in the name of BBA, the transaction actually followed the Bai’ ‘inah contract, which is a controversial contract among the shariah scholars. Likewise, commodity Murabahah is also a different contract than Murabahah, as it actually refers to tawarruq. As such, this research finding is important to the Islamic banking industry to understand that Malaysia has moved away from the Bai’ ‘inah contract practised in the name of BBA in Islamic house financing, and there are new products introduced by the Islamic banks in Malaysia to replace this practice which were criticised by Shariah scholars.

This paper aims to achieve two goals: first, to evaluate the existing interest-free monetary policy tools in the major Islamic financial hubs of Malaysia, Pakistan and Bahrain and; second, to suggest how monetary policy tools in Turkey can be used in other countries.

This study follows a qualitative research method based on literature review, comparison, evaluation and design.

The policy rate cannot be used due to Shariah concerns. The reserve requirement depends on qard, and the reserves should be kept separately in the central bank. In terms of ijarah sukuk, Shariah concerns should be taken into account and a new structure, as displayed in Figure 3, should be followed. Government investment certificates can be used as an interest-free monetary policy tool. A genuine mudarabah interbank investments can also be used. Wadiah acceptance with no habitual gift can be used as well, and Tawarruq and central bank notes are not preferable due to Shariah concerns as well. Having said that, a Turkey-based tawarruq platform can be structured for others to use instead of applying to London.

This paper’s unique suggestion is to develop an interbank taqaruz market and a taqaruz method with the central bank. It is also unique for Turkey in the subject.

This paper aims to assess how Sharīʿah guidelines improve the working capital needs of the Indian sugar industry. Previous studies reveal that the sugar industry in India is in a state of cash deprivation for decades. Finance is not available for expansion, as well as for working capital requirements. Banks have also declined to provide working capital loans to the sugar industry.

Lack of working capital management and its impact upon sugar mills profitability are examined based on a sample of six Indian sugar mills and the use of panel data analysis for the period 2011-2015.

The regression results suggest the need for reducing the number of days’ account receivables and inventories to a reasonable minimum to maintain the liquidity necessary for the mills, which current mills cannot manage to achieve, and consequently, suffer liquidity problems.

This paper presents a model of Sharīʿah-compliant working capital financing for cash deprived Indian sugar industry. All the three parties stand to benefit from this arrangement: the farmer will get the price of his crop promptly and at its farmland, sugar mill will secure the required quantity of raw material (sugarcane) without any immediate cash outflow, and the Islamic bank will earn a reasonable mark-up profit from this transaction.

The study is the first comprehensive effort to explore the possible combination of Islamic banking products subject to the fulfillment of needs of sugar mills and farmers and the application of an Islamic banking instrument in the agriculture sector of India. It also suggests the possible models for financing under a Salam and Murabahah contract.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the techniques used by Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) to shift conventional instruments to Shariah-compliant instruments. The paper additionally aims to explore the effect of these techniques on financial reporting.

The study recognized two techniques used by the IFI: the combination of contracts which compartmentalizes the economic transaction into a series of linked sub-transactions, and the inclusion of donation (Tabarru) in commercial contracts. The paper also reviews the accounting treatment according to the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and compares it to the concepts adopted by the traditional financial reporting framework concepts (especially substance over form concept).

With regard to the combination of contracts technique, the major accounting challenge is whether the substance over form concept is considered. Mixed results are found: in some products, the economic substance is presented in the financial reports, while in other cases, the legal form of the contract is reported. This ambiguity may hinder the faithful representation of financial statements. The Tabarru contract is used to justify the risk-shifting practices by Islamic banks. The accounting effects of such contracts may result in failure to recognize assets or liabilities in the financial reports, earnings management and incomplete financial information for the users of the financial reports.

This study is a response to the call raised by the consultative group established by the International Accounting Standards Board. It provides an additional insight into the accounting treatments for a combination of contracts and Tabarru contracts. It also contrasts the accounting treatments, as stipulated by the AAOIFI, with the conventional accounting frameworks.