Performance and productivity in Islamic and conventional banks: Evidence from the global financial crisis

We assess the performance and productivity of Islamic and conventional banks using financial ratios, a two- and a four-component meta-frontier Malmquist productivity index (MPI). We focus on the relatively homogenous GCC region over the 2006–2012 period that covers the global financial crisis. We find that Islamic banks exhibit worse cost and profit performance but are on a par with regards to revenue performance compared to the conventional ones. The components of the meta-frontier MPI suggest that the technology of conventional banks improves markedly in years leading to the financial crisis and declines thereafter. Islamic banks show a similar but more muted pattern. By contrast, the pronounced within-Islamic bank group variation in technical efficiency and technology suggests that Islamic banks are quite heterogeneous as a group. Overall, the MPI analysis suggests that the two bank types are more aligned following the global financial crisis. Policy makers should be wary of the important variations within the Islamic banking industry when implementing bank regulations.     

Tail dependence risk exposure and diversification potential of Islamic and conventional banks

This paper undertakes a rolling window comparative analysis of risks for portfolios consisting of GCC Islamic and conventional bank indices. We draw our empirical results by employing canonical, drawable and regular vine copula models, as well as by implementing a portfolio optimization method with a conditional Value-at-Risk constraint. We find evidence of higher riskiness in the group of Islamic banks relative to the group of conventional banks across each of the financial rolling window scenarios under consideration. Specifically, a greater negative (nonlinear) tail asymmetric dependence is observed in the pairs of Islamic banks’ relationships. The results also show that the optimal portfolio model supports a clear preference towards the group of conventional banks in regard to risk minimization and diversification benefits.     

Are Islamic Banks More Resilient During Financial Panics?

Islamic banking is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial sector in developing countries. Rapid growth of this segment is accompanied with claims about its relative resilience to financial crises as compared to conventional banking. However, little empirical evidence is available to support such claims. Using data from Pakistan, where Islamic and conventional banks co‐exist, we compare the behaviour of Islamic and conventional banks during a financial panic. Our results show that Islamic bank branches are less prone to deposit withdrawals during financial panics, both unconditionally and after controlling for bank characteristics. The Islamic branches of banks that have both Islamic and conventional operations tend to attract (rather than lose) deposits during panics, which suggests a role for religious branding. We also find that Islamic bank branches grant more loans during financial panics and that their lending decisions are less sensitive to changes in deposits. Our findings suggest that greater financial inclusion of faith‐based groups may enhance the stability of the banking system.     

Does a one-size-fits-all approach to financial regulations alleviate default risk? The case of dual banking systems

Financial regulations are developed to curb financial and economic fragility costs without undermining the economic contributions of banks to economic development. To understand the impact financial regulations have on reducing the financial fragility of banks we use the probability-of-default of banks as a proxy for bank failure. After analyzing data collected from 15 countries with a dual banking system for the period 2000–2015, we find convincing evidence that not all financial regulations have risk-reducing benefits for banks and the impact of financial regulations on default risk is not the same for conventional banks (CBs) and Islamic banks (IBs). The empirical evidence suggests that regulations that lessen overall default risk have a greater impact on IBs while those increasing default risk have a greater impact on CBs. Based on our findings we recommend that regulators should consider the different natures of CBs and IBs and tailor financial regulations to suit these operationally distinct financial intermediaries.     

Business cycle and bank lending procyclicality in a dual banking system

The paper studies bank lending behaviour over the business cycle in a dual banking system, Malaysia, with the objective of ascertaining whether Islamic banks have a role in stabilizing credit. The study makes use of unbalanced panel data of 21 conventional banks and 16 Islamic banks covering mostly the period 2001–2013. Applying dynamic GMM estimators, we find the aggregate loans by banks to be pro-cyclical in conformity with existing studies. However, when we segregate the lending/financing behaviour of conventional and Islamic banks, the cyclicality of bank lending seems to be true only for conventional banks. As for the Islamic banks, the business cycle does not seem to affect their financing decisions. Indeed, there is indication that the Islamic banks in general and the full-fledged Islamic banks in particular can even be counter-cyclical in their financing decisions. This conclusion is fairly robust to a different loan measure, alternative model specifications, and to an alternative business cycle measure. Hence, our results provide further support to the “stability” view of the Islamic banks in that they have the ability to stabilize credit.     

The Theory of the Second Best and the Competitive Equilibrium Model

We study the international transmission of bank liquidity shocks from multinational, Islamic, bank-holding companies to their subsidiaries. Based on a total sample of 120 Islamic and conventional bank subsidiaries, we test whether foreign bank lending for Islamic and conventional banks is determined by different factors. We estimate a model that includes subsidiary and parent bank characteristics as well as host and home country variables. Our empirical findings show that lending is negatively affected by the fragility of conventional parent banks' subsidiaries. Nevertheless, we show that parent Islamic banks do not significantly affect lending by subsidiaries. Finally, we examine the market discipline regarding the transmission of liquidity shocks. We also find that reduction in foreign Islamic bank lending is stronger for those that are dependent on the interbank market. We establish that the depositors react to a deterioration of bank performance and punish their institutions by withdrawing their money. We show that market discipline has a more important role for Islamic banks, whereas liquidity needs determine the change in conventional banks.     

What impact do differences in financial structure have on the macro effects of bank capital requirements in the United States and Australia?

We investigate the influence of jurisdictional differences in financial structure on the economic consequences of bank capital regulation. We use two disaggregated financial computable general equilibrium models to compare the impacts of identical increases in bank capital adequacy ratios in the U.S. and Australia. In both models, this raises bank equity financing shares, and lowers banks’ risk-weighted asset holdings. Thereafter however, differences in financial structure drive contrasting outcomes: in the U.S., average costs of capital fall, stimulating real investment, while we find the opposite outcome for Australia. We attribute this to differences in the structure of bank assets (U.S. banks hold more risk-free assets) and the importance of banks as intermediaries (bank finance is more important to capital formation in Australia). This may explain why capital regulations encompass non-banks in the U.S. but not Australia.     

Intricacies of competition,stability, and diversification: Evidence from dual banking economies

This paper investigates the nexus of competition and stability by introducing the interaction of diversification and competition. We use a sample of both conventional and Islamic banks from 14 dual banking economies over 2005–2016. The core finding illustrates that competition does not impact bank stability and that diversification is insignificant in the competition-stability nexus. Further, we find that concentration is beneficial for the banking stability of both types of banks. In most of our results, we found no difference in the impact of competition and diversification on the stability of conventional and Islamic banks. To put our findings in a broader context, we argue that no difference between the business models can be considered an early signal of possible convergence between the two systems.     

Religiosity versus rationality: Depositor behavior in Islamic and conventional banks

This study investigates the behavioral aspects of Islamic bank depositors in a dual banking system. By categorizing depositors into groups based on the amount of their deposited funds, we estimate the responses of these groups to interest rate changes. We take the findings of conventional banks as a comparative baseline and investigate the extent to which the changes in different Islamic depositor groups differ from conventional depositor groups. The findings show that depositors in both Islamic and conventional banks respond to interest rate changes. The analysis indicates that Islamic bank depositors are more responsive when their deposit sizes are larger. When Islamic bank depositors’ opportunity costs rise due to a rise in the interest rate, they do not hesitate to withdraw deposits. The relation between interest rate changes and deposits is more robust in Islamic banks than in conventional banks.     

Impact of interest rates on Islamic and conventional banks: the case of Turkey

Identifying the impact of the interest rates upon Islamic banks is a key to understand the contribution of such institutions to the financial stability, designing monetary policies and devising a proper risk management applicable to these institutions. This article analyses and investigates the impact of interest rate shock upon the deposits and loans held by the conventional and Islamic banks with particular reference to the period between December 2005 and July 2009 based on Vector Error Correction (VEC) methodology. It is theoretically expected that the Islamic banks, relying on interest-free banking, shall not be affected by the interest rates; however, in concurrence with the previous studies, the article finds that the Islamic banks in Turkey are visibly influenced by interest rates.     

Cost-efficiency and financial and geographical characteristics of banking sectors in the MENA countries

We utilize the translog stochastic frontier model to estimate the cost-efficiency levels for conventional and Islamic, Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC banks in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. The estimated cost-efficiency averages around 77% for those MENA banks, but with slight changes in this score for the individual countries. The results also show that the banks in the GCC countries are the most efficient in the region and the efficiency scores for the conventional and Islamic banks are similar. Finally, the recent financial crisis seems to have a slight impact on the observed efficiency scores of those banks.     

HOW DOES FOREIGN BANK OWNERSHIP IN THE BANKING SECTOR AFFECT DOMESTIC BANK BEHAVIOUR? A DYNAMIC PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how foreign bank ownership in the banking sector affects domestic bank behaviour and whether this relationship depends on the economic and financial conditions of the host country. This paper contains 795 individual banks in 39 countries covering the period 1999–2006. Foreign ownership is calculated using bank level data as a proxy for the degree of foreign bank ownership in the banking sector. First, we find that foreign bank ownership is associated with a decrease in both the profitability and overhead expenses of the domestic bank after applying the system panel Generalized Method of Moments model. Second, a lower level of economic development of the host country enhances the positive effects of foreign bank ownership on the income, profit and cost of domestic banks. Third, financial development plays an important role in determining the effect of foreign bank ownership. Fourth, while the use of aggregate foreign ownership data may provide us with a big picture, it may not explain why individual banks in the same country perform differently, which this study will answer.     

How Islamic are Islamic banks? A non-linear assessment of Islamic rate – conventional rate relations

In this paper, we perform a non-linear assessment of Islamic rate – conventional rate relations for the case of Malaysia. Using monthly data covering the period January 1999 to November 2016, we find strong evidence supporting non-linear reactions of the Islamic investment rates to conventional rates in the long run and/or short-run for all matched maturities. More precisely, the Islamic investment rates exhibit faster upward movement (slower downward movement) in responses to conventional deposit rate increases (decreases). The asymmetric pricing behaviour of Islamic banks however tends to weaken as maturity lengthens. Accordingly, we infer that Islamic banks do not rigidly peg their investment deposit rates to conventional deposit rates as some have claimed in questioning the Islamicity of Islamic banks.     

The Economy‐wide Impacts of a Rise in the Capital Adequacy Ratios of Australian Banks

Regulators are requiring banks to raise additional equity to finance their activities. The benefits are understood in terms of reducing the risks of another financial crisis. But there are potential costs, including the potential for unanticipated macroeconomic impacts as banks reduce leverage. We use a financial computable general equilibrium model, containing disaggregated treatment of financial agents, to explore the economy‐wide consequences of an increase in bank capital adequacy ratios. We find that the macroeconomic consequences are small.     

Small business lending and credit risk: Granger causality evidence

Because of their opaque nature, SMEs are overly reliant on bank lending. Therefore, we examine whether banks' credit supply to SMEs are affected by their financial conditions. To this end, we employ a Granger causality analysis to examine whether there is an indication of a significant direction of determination between SME lending and non-performing SME loans. The results reveal no bidirectional relationship between SME lending and NPL for the entire banking sector. For Islamic banks, however, we find two-way linkages between these two parameters: a negative causation is running both from SME lending to NPL growth and from NPL to SME lending. Given Islamic banks' deposit-oriented funding practices and their adherence to profit-and-loss sharing principles, this finding suggests the presence of heightened market discipline within the Islamic banking system.     

Pricing beliefs: Empirical evidence from the implied cost of deposit insurance for Islamic banks

Using a large international sample of 348,899 year-firm observations covering 352 Islamic banks and 30,572 conventional banks in 213 countries over the 1999–2013 period, we estimate the deposit insurance premiums of Islamic banks and conventional banks. We find that the premiums for publicly listed Islamic banks are 28% lower than those for publicly listed conventional banks. Moreover, we show that the premiums of privately held banks are significantly higher than those of publicly listed banks. Finally, we show that publicly listed Islamic banks did not record an increase in the level of deposit insurance premiums during the 2007–2009 financial crisis.     

Regional bank efficiency and its effect on regional growth in “normal” and “bad” times

The financial crisis affected regions in Europe in a different magnitude. This is why we examine whether regions which incorporate banks with a higher intermediation quality grow faster in “normal” times and are more resilient in “bad” ones. For this purpose, we measure the intermediation quality of a bank by estimating its profit and cost efficiency while taking the changing banking environment after the financial crisis into account. Next, we aggregate the efficiencies of all banks within a NUTS 2 region to obtain a regional proxy for financial quality in twelve European countries. Our results show that relatively more profit efficient banks foster growth in their region. The link between financial quality and growth is valid in “normal” and in “bad” times. These results provide evidence to the importance of swiftly restoring bank profitability in euro area crisis countries through addressing high non-performing loans ratios and decisive actions on bank recapitalization.     

The financial and economic performance of social banks

ABSTRACT

The financial crisis of 2008 provides evidence for the instability of the conventional banking system. Social banks may present a viable alternative for conventional banks. This article analyses the performance of social banks related to the bank business model, economic efficiency, asset quality, and stability by comparing social banks with banks where the difference is likely to be large, namely with the 30 global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) of the Financial Stability Board over the period 2000–2014. We also analyse the relative impact of the global financial crisis on the bank performance. The performance of social banks and G-SIBs is surprisingly similar.     

Ratings based Inference and Credit Risk: Detecting likely-to-fail Banks with the PC-Mahalanobis Method

This paper proposes a new approach of how to test the validity of bank ratings assigned by Rating Agencies. An innovative Early Warning System (EWS) is introduced that allows to unveil prodromic signals of instability for selected individual banks, and possibly forecast bank failures. A forward-looking, credit risk model that is based on financial ratios is designed to assess the financial position of rated banks. This approach allows to discriminate between banks that are in a stable, financially healthy position, and banks that are possibly going to become insolvent (likely-to-fail banks). Our empirical results are compared with the official ratings assigned by RAs to the same intermediaries. Our findings reveal incoherent positions and possibly incorrectly rated banks. We argue that our method can be easily implemented by financial regulators.     

Subprime crisis and board (in-) competence: private versus public banks in Germany

We examine evidence for a systematic underperformance of Germany's state-owned banks in the current financial crisis and study if the bank losses can be traced to the quality of bank governance. For this purpose, we examine the biographical background of 592 supervisory board members in the 29 largest banks and find a pronounced difference in the finance and management experience of board representatives across private and state-owned banks. Measures of 'boardroom competence' are then related directly to the magnitude of bank losses in the recent financial crisis. Our data confirm that supervisory board (in-)competence in finance is related to losses in the financial crisis. Improved bank governance is therefore a suitable policy objective to reduce bank fragility.
— Harald Hau and Marcel Thum