We report new evidence on the bank and institutional determinants of Islamic bank capital ratios in 28 countries between 1999 and 2013. Overall, we find that smaller, more profitable, and highly liquid Islamic banks are more highly capitalized. Additionally, improvements in the economic and financial environments and market discipline within a country correspond with higher Islamic bank capitalization. The results shed light on the impact that Sharia'a law restrictions have on Islamic banking capitalization. Our findings are most robust to banks that choose to hold capital well in excess of that required by regulators, consistent with traditional capital structure theory. Our results highlight the role that stable economic and political systems play in improving bank capitalization and reducing financial sector risk. By reducing political instability and corruption, improving legal systems, and encouraging access to capital markets, policymakers may incentivize managers to make financing decisions that increase the capitalization of the Islamic banking industry in developing countries.

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Purpose – The aim of the paper is to analyze whether performance measures and their factors for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Muslim countries are significantly different from those in their non-Muslim counterparts, central to the Islamic scholars' argument that religious and cultural norms in Muslim countries may drive the preference of Islamic microfinance over conventional microfinance. Design/methodology/approach – Using a cross-sectional dataset of 2,138 firm-years for 754 different MFIs across 83 countries, 33 Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member Muslim countries and 50 non-member countries, we analyzed the MFI performance based on three sets of measures: outreach, loan recovery and profitability and overall financial performance measures, with respect to two sets of explanatory variables, namely, country-specific and firm-level variables. Findings – Results show that country gross domestic product size is positively related with profitability, and the percentage of women borrowers is also significant in driving loan recovery and firm profitability in the OIC sample, but they are otherwise not significant for the rest of the world sample. Practical implications – This study contributes to the understanding of the core argument in the motivation of Islamic MFIs, which is whether cultural and religious factors are important for MFI success in Muslim countries. Originality/value – This study introduces a variable that measures the difference between a country's independence year and their OIC membership year as a proxy for the “country religious inclination” of a Muslim country. Results suggest that countries with delayed membership in OIC show lower inclination to popular Islamic beliefs and higher market penetration of conventional microfinance outreach. Positive relationships among a country's religious inclination and loan loss ratios and loan provisions are also consistent with the moral hazard hypothesis that few religious communities may be more prone to default.

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