Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the compliance level of Islamic banks with disclosure accounting standards in some Middle East and North African countries, and most importantly to analyse the factors associated with compliance. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a self-constructed checklist of 203 items to measure the compliance of 38 Islamic banks with disclosure accounting standards during the 2011-2013 period. A multivariate regression analysis is used to determine significant factors influencing the extent of this compliance. Findings The results show a wide variation in compliance levels among the disclosure accounting standards and reveal that compliance is positively related to the listing status, the existence of an audit committee, the bank’s age and the country of domicile. Research limitations/implications This study analyses the compliance level with only disclosure accounting standards. It remains to future research to examine compliance with all Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions’ Financial Accounting Standards (AAOIFI FAS). Moreover, the explanatory power of the model remains modest. This connotes the existence of omitted variables that could be explored in future research. Practical implications The research contributes to the international financial accounting literature about the banking industry. The results are relevant for researchers, accounting professionals, stakeholders, standard-setters and regulatory bodies that are concerned with Islamic banks’ disclosures. Originality/value Although AAOIFI was established since 1991, very few empirical studies about compliance with the FAS have been undertaken. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that investigated the determinants of compliance level with AAOIFI FAS. Then, this study concentrates on disclosure accounting standards (FAS 1 and FAS 5) with a high risk of non-compliance.

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of the main corporate governance characteristics on compliance with accounting and auditing organisation for Islamic financial institutions’ (AAOIFI) governance standards’ (GSs) disclosure requirements by Islamic banks (IB) that adopt AAOIFIs’ standards in Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Syria, Sudan, Palestine and Yemen. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of 486 bank-year observations from 2009 to 2017. Findings The findings reveal that compliance with AAOIFIs’ GSs’ disclosure requirements is positively influenced by the audit committee (AC) independence, AC’s accounting and financial expertise and industry expertise, auditor industry specialisation, IB’s size and IB’s listing status. On the other hand, it is negatively influenced by the ownership concentration. Research limitations/implications This study has only examined compliance with AAOIFI’s GSs’ disclosure requirements and has focussed on one major sector of the Islamic financial institutions (which is IB). Practical implications The findings are useful for various groups of preparers and users of IBs’ annual reports such as academics and researchers, accountants, management of IBs and some organisations. Originality/value While the study of the AAOIFIs’ standards has grown contemporary with considerable contributions from scholars, however, the majority of these studies are descriptive in nature. Indeed, the existing literature that has explored the determinants of compliance with AAOIFI’s standards is in the early research stage. To the best of the knowledge, there is a paucity of empirical research testing this issue.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of specific Islamic banks’ (IBs) corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on compliance with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions’ (AAOIFI) governance standards (GSs) disclosure requirements. Design/methodology/approach Using an unweighted governance compliance index, the authors measure the extent of IBs’ compliance with 7 AAOIFI GSs’ disclosure requirements over the period 2009–2015 (372 bank-year observations). In addition, a multivariate regression analysis was used to test the four hypotheses. Findings This study’s results report substantial non-compliance (the mean of compliance level with AAOIFI’s GSs over the covered years for the entire sampled IBs is 52.1%). The findings reveal that the Shariah Supervisory Board’s (SSB) remuneration, SSB’s members with only industry expertise, SSB’s members with the combined industry expertise and accounting and financial expertise, the existence of internal Shariah Auditing Department and the level of investment accounts holders’ funds are positively associated with the level of compliance with AAOIFI’s GSs. Originality/value The existing studies focusing on the determinants of compliance with AAOIFI’s standards are in the early research stage, as to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a paucity of empirical research testing this issue. The authors extend these studies by examining all the AAOIFI’s GSs and focusing on the specific IBs’ CG mechanisms. Furthermore, a major contribution of this study is the examination of the relationship between some SSB’s characteristics and compliance level. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that has examined the effect of the SSB’s remuneration and expertise on compliance level.

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Purpose This research study aims to examine the effect of the compliance with the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards on the performance of Islamic banks. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of 628 bank-year observations from eight countries that adopt the AAOIFI standards during the period 2009–2020. Findings The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between the overall compliance level with AAOIFI standards and the two performance measures in Islamic banks. Practical implications The findings are useful for various groups of preparers and users of Islamic banks’ annual reports, such as academics and researchers, accountants, management of Islamic banks and national and international organizations. Originality/value This research provides new empirical evidence on the effect of compliance with AAOIFI standards (accounting and governance) on Islamic banks performance. In addition, the findings reveal that the examination of compliance level should not be restricted to an overall compliance index that contains all the AAOIFI standards, but should rather take into consideration the different types of these standards (accounting and governance).