Islamic finance and governance indicators: empirical evidence from Islamic finance-permitting countries

Despite being greatly progressive for more than 45 years covering even Muslim minority countries, the development of Islamic finance in some countries is not supported by well-established governance. This paper aims to empirically re-examine the effects of the governance components on Islamic finance in 45 Islamic finance-permitting countries. The study utilizes the dynamic panel GMM approach from the data spanning from 2012 to 2019. We find insignificant effect of regulation in Islamic finance in the region of developed countries, Muslim minority countries, and other Arab countries. We also find that corporate governance is not statistically significant in MENA and non-Asian countries. These results reinforce the need for a new type of regulation based on product requirements, policies, and procedures. Thus, the governance indicators can be understood by the wider world and assist in gaining more acceptance for the Islamic finance industry.