Highlights
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Islamic banking
Islamic fund management
Risk management in Islamic finance
Regulatory issues
Future research avenues
Credit author statement
Acknowledgements
References
Abstract
In this paper, we present the current state of research in Islamic finance by focusing on three spheres of knowledge: Islamic banking, Islamic fund management, and risk management. We also discuss regulatory issues while systematically referring to conventional finance as a benchmark. We conclude by shedding more light on future research avenues.
Introduction
Recent literature documents the steady growth of Islamic finance globally. According to Abedifar et al. (2016), Islamic finance has been growing at an average yearly rate of 15% to 20%. Moreover, during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Islamic finance has proven to be more resilient to severe financial shocks compared to conventional finance (Bitar et al., 2017; Hasan and Dridi, 2010). This raised attention to and awareness about Islamic finance among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike. In this paper, we look at research in Islamic finance from a demand point of view, in the sense that Muslim individuals need financial services that comply with their set of beliefs (Grira et al., 2016). Banking services, investment services, as well as insurance services that fit Muslims‟ preferences are then of great interest for a large population around the globe. Indeed, the Islamic Financial Services Industry (IFSI), which includes three main sectors: banking, capital markets and Takaful (Islamic insurance) has reached in 2017 for the first time a total worth surpassing USD 2 trillion (IFSB, 2018) and is expected to reach US$ 3.8 trillion by 2022 (ICD Thomson Reuters, 2017).