Shariah Governance Framework (SGF) is a structural process by which Islamic banks monitor, control and conduct their activities. This study describes the overall scenery of SGF of Islamic banks in Bangladesh. The paper also reviews the current practices, problems, legal and regulatory issues by using a deductive procedure and provides some propositions for the enhancement of SGF. The main objective of this paper is to understand the SGF, its current practices, problems and challenges which will be helpful to develop a SGF for Islamic banks in future. The study reveals that the Shariah governance system in Bangladesh is mainly voluntary rather than regulatory and there is an absence of full-fledged SGF. It seems that the Board of Directors (BOD) uses the Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) in accomplishing their objectives and responsible for overall Shariah activities rather than the SSB. In order to improve the SGF, Bangladesh government should enact a law for the operations of Islamic banks. Besides, Bangladesh Bank (BB) should come out with a comprehensive Centralized SGF by outlining the roles, powers, and functions of all stakeholders to ensure the accountability of their works and improve the quality of the Shariah compliance. Moreover, the central bank can set up a Central Shariah Supervisory Board (CSSB) in its head office or can recognize existing Central Shariah Board for Islamic Banks of Bangladesh (CSBIB) along with power so that they can supervise and monitor overall activities of Islamic banks and solve the disputes among the stakeholders regarding the Shariah issues of Islamic banks. Contribution/ Originality:This study is unique regarding the Shariah governance of Islamic banks in Bangladesh. The study contributes in the existing literature by illustrating the whole picture of the Shariah governance so that the academicians, and regulators can get the overall picture as well as the regulatory authorities can take initiatives to mitigate the problems and development of Shariah governance.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the significant role of the Shariah Board (SB) in the innovation of digital finance products through SBs’ interaction with financial technology (FinTech). Design/methodology/approach By using semi-structured interviews, the paper examines 34 views and experiences of scholars and other practitioners from the FinTech and Islamic banking industries to gain an in-depth understanding of SBs’ Shariah compliance roles in FinTech inclusion in Malaysian Islamic banks (IBs). Findings Taking advantage of Malaysia’s comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework for IBs, the study highlighted the importance of SBs to better address the opportunities and challenges of financial innovation for the development of IBs with the inclusion of FinTech. The authors found that digital solutions and tools, such as Robo Advisory system and blockchain, enhance SBs’ roles by providing more effective and timely Shariah assurance regardless of the volume of data information and storage. Practical implications Given SBs significant roles in conforming to the Shariah, the study contributed significantly to assisting the regulatory and policy promulgation that enhance SBs’ integrity and credibility in response to the growth of IB infrastructures and financial innovation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the significant role of SBs in the innovation of digital finance products through their interaction with FinTech, while prior studies focused on the characteristics and structure of Islamic digital financial products.

Islamic financial market is the growing innovation of global financial market which moves together with conventional and sectorial counterpart in many countries. As the fastest growing investment component, Shariah compliant stock index in Bursa Malaysia has picked up positive momentum and attracted more attention to the investors, policy makers, issuers and researchers. The main objective of this study is to investigate the co-movement between Shariah compliant stock and sectorial stocks indexes performance in Bursa Malaysia using a standard time series techniques. For understanding a long run and short run co-movement among the Shariah compliant stock index, composite stock index and sectorial stock indexes, a co-integration approach, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) have been applied respectively in this study. In addition, Granger causality test have been adopted to determine the lead-lag relationship. The findings show that in the long run, Shariah compliant index stock price and sectorial indexes stock price move together but in short run, speed of adjustment varies among the variables. Ganger causality test shows that there are bidirectional, unidirectional and no causality relationships between Shariah compliant and sectorial indexes.

Islamic finance has developed a unique and balance system that complies with the principles of Shariah. Shariah encompasses all aspect of human life that aims to provide a fair, equitable distribution of wealth, alleviate all form of poverty and promote sustainable development. This study focuses on discussing the current issue of digitalization, innovation and sustainable development based on the evidence of Islamic finance. The objectives of this study are to generate the discussion, how digitalization and innovation play their role to sustain development in Islamic finance perspectives. Moreover, the study also sheds light on the challenges faced by Islamic finance on applying this digitalization and innovation viewpoints. The evidence suggests that due to the rapid economic growth, digitalization and innovation are the catalysts to sustain the development. In Islamic finance perspectives, digitalization and innovation (Fintech-blockchain and bitcoin) are still in their infancy stage. The researchers agreed that FinTech is a Maslahah (interest) to broaden the area of sustainable development such as zero poverty, no hunger and the social well-being of the community. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature by discussing the current issue of digitalization, innovation and sustainable development based on the evidence of Islamic finance.

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