Purpose In this paper, the author aims to examine the effect of perceived level of corruption on bank profitability. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on a balanced panel of ten commercial banks in Tunisia over the period 2003-2014. The author uses the generalized method of moments estimator technique described by Arellano and Bover (1995). Findings The author finds a positive relationship between the bank profitability and the corruption level. This surprising result suggests that Tunisian commercial banks take advantage from the high level of corruption. Regarding the others determinants, the findings reveal that bank profitability is positively related to capitalization level and liquidity. By contrast, a low asset quality is associated with low profitability. Originality/value The novelty of this study consists in the inclusion of the corruption level as a determinant of bank profitability.

Islamic banking is developing rapidly around the world and is increasingly recognized as a viable alternative mode of financing especially these last years when capitalism has shown its limits and weaknesses. However, this astronomical growth of banking and Islamic finance was associated with a high level of corruption that plagues many Muslim countries. This ailment of corruption can deter Islamic banking to be a better effective and meaningful pathway for poverty reduction and economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corruption on the soundness of Islamic banks (IBs). Using a panel of 69 IBs over the period 2008-2010, we provide robust evidence that the corruption level aggravates the problem of impaired financing. JEL Classification G21 Z12 C33 AbstractIslamic banking is developing rapidly around the world and is increasingly recognized as a viable alternative mode of financing especially these last years when capitalism has shown its limits and weaknesses. However, this astronomical growth of banking and Islamic finance was associated with a high level of corruption that plagues many Muslim countries. This ailment of corruption can deter Islamic banking to be a better effective and meaningful pathway for poverty reduction and economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corruption on the soundness of Islamic banks (IBs). Using a panel of 69 IBs over the period 2008-2010, we provide robust evidence that the corruption level aggravates the problem of impaired financing. JEL Classification

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to determine the factors that influence the stability of Islamic and conventional banks. Second, it focuses on the relationship between the regulatory capital and bank soundness. Design/methodology/approach Thus, the authors use the Z-score to assess the stability of Islamic and conventional banks operating in the Middle East and North Africa region over the period 1999 to 2014. Findings The comparative analysis reveals that Islamic banks seem to be less stable than their conventional peers. With regard to the determinants of bank stability, the findings suggest that the regulatory capital represents the primordial factor that reinforces the soundness of banking systems. The authors also find that bank stability depends on both bank-specific variables as well as macroeconomic and institutional variables. Interestingly, the corruption level turns out to have a significant negative effect on financial strength in the both types of banks. Originality/value The authors believe that investigating the relationship between regulatory capital and the failure risk in a comparative study between Islamic and conventional banks deserves a particular attention and looks very interesting because it will allow them to identify the difference between the factors explaining the failure risk of each type of banks. The authors also believe that the analysis of the relationship between corruption and bank stability is very interesting because corruption can be seen as an example of moral hazard which forces Islamic banks to use non-PLS instruments.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of corruption on the asset quality of banks operating in emerging market economies over the period 2008-2012. This issue is of crucial importance given the role of banking systems in economic development and the worldwide spread of corruption. Using panel data set of 22 countries, our findings provide a strong and robust support to the hypothesis according to which corruption aggravates the problem with non-performing loans. This evidence suggests that corruption may hinder economic development through the misallocation of loanable funds. Other results are as follows: economic expansion and capitalization level improve the loan portfolio quality. By contrast, unemployment deteriorates the debt servicing capacity of borrower which in turn contributes to lower the bank asset quality. Design/methodology/approach The authors use panel data techniques on a sample of 22 emerging market economies over the period 2008-2012 to test the relevance of corrupt practices on the soundness of banks. Findings Their findings reveal a robust positive relationship between corruption and non-performing loans (NPLs). This evidence corroborates previous results on the detrimental effect of corrupt practices on financial development. The subdivision of our main sample into two groups on the basis of the level of corruption reveals the importance of the effectiveness of collateral and bankruptcy laws in reducing the effect of corruption on loan portfolio. Moreover, we find that the accessibility to more credit information is helpful only in low corrupt countries since it enhances the soundness of banks by facilitating lending decisions. Originality/value The novelty of this paper is to take into consideration the implications of corruption in investigating the determinants of credit risk.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Islamic banking and industrial production by decomposing Islamic financing (IF) into profit and loss sharing (PLS) and non-profit and loss sharing (non-PLS) modes of financing. Design/methodology/approach This paper applies the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and Toda and Yamamoto causality test on the monthly data set for Malaysia from 2010M1 to 2018M6. Findings The results reveal that IF plays an important role in boosting industrial production in the short run, as well as in the long run. Moreover, this positive effect mainly comes from non-PLS financing. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between PLS financing and industrial development neither in the short run nor in the long run. Practical implications The results have several policy implications. The existence of a time lag between the pooling of funds through PLS contracts and their channeling to industrial activities imply that Malaysian Islamic banks should maintain a long-term relationship with investment account holders. In addition, Islamic banks are called to increase the portion of PLS financing. The positive relationship between the industrial production index and IF (through non-PLS techniques) in the short and the long runs implies that policymakers in Malaysia should multiply their efforts to further expand the Islamic banking industry. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in decomposing Islamic banks’ financing into PLS financing (muḍārabah and mushārakah) and non-PLS financing to assess the contribution of each mode of financing in industrial development.

Purpose The distinctive feature of Islamic financial intermediation is its foundation on profit-and-loss sharing which reinforces solidarity and fraternity between partners. Thus, the bank margin and its determinants may differ between Islamic and conventional banks (CBs). The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the main factors that explain the bank margin in a panel of Islamic and CBs operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This study will permit to identify the common and the specific determinants of the intermediation margins in dual banking systems. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a dynamic panel approach. The empirical analysis is carried out for a sample of 50 Islamic banks (IBs) and 126 CBs from 14 MENA countries. Findings The results reveal that net profit margins of IBs may be explained for the most part by risk aversion, inefficiency, diversification and economic conditions. With regard to CBs, their margins depend positively on market concentration and risk aversion and negatively on specialization, diversification, inefficiency and liquidity. Practical implications The significant impact of the degree of diversification on margins suggests that any policy analysis of the pricing behavior of banks should rely on its whole output. The high levels of margins in Islamic and CBs based in the MENA region may represent an obstacle to these countries to pursue their development process. Thus, policy makers in these countries should consolidate the role of capital markets and nonbanking financial institutions to provide alternative sources of funding and stimulate more competition. Social implications The positive relationship between concentration and net interest margins requires that policy makers should create competitive conditions if they want to lower the social cost of financial intermediation. The creation of competitive conditions may be achieved through encouraging the establishment of new domestic banks or the penetration of foreign banks. Originality/value The present study aims to contribute to the existing literature on the determinants of bank margins in three ways. First, the authors identify the factors that most explain bank margins for both conventional and IBs. The majority of previous studies examine the determinants of the profitability or the overall performance of banks and in particular conventional ones. Second, this paper employs two generalized method of moments (GMM) approaches introduced by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Arellano and Bond (1991). It differs from Hutapea and Kasri (2010) who employed the co-integration technique to examine the long-run relationship between Islamic and CB margins and their determinants in Indonesia. Third, unlike previous studies focusing on MENA region that use a small number of countries and a short sample period, the period of study covers 16 years from 1999 to 2014 and a large sample of countries (14 countries). This paper differs from Lee and Isa (2017) who applied the dynamic two-step GMM estimator technique introduced by Arellano and Bond (1991) to study the determinants of intermediation margins of Islamic and CBs located in Malaysia.

This paper investigates the relevance of market timing considerations on the debt-equity choice using a panel of tunisian and french listed firms. Consistent with the market timing theory, we find that firms tend to issue equity when their market valuations are relatively higher than their book values and after market performance improvement. As a consequence, these firms become underlevraged in the short-term and this impact of equity market timing on capital structure persists beyond eight years.