Determinants of liquidity risk in Islamic banks

This study investigates the impact of political instability, macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on the profitability of Islamic banks in the context of Yemen. The study used two common measures of profitability, namely, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) as dependent variables. Seven key independent (internal and external) variables are also used. There are five fully-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) working in Yemen. The study selected only three out of five IBs due to the availability of data for the period ranging from 2010 to 2014. The descriptive and multiple regression analyses were done. The results of the study indicate that operating efficiency and financial risk have negative and significant relationships with ROA and ROE. The findings also show that capital adequacy has a negative and insignificant relationship with ROA and ROE. Furthermore, the study reveals that assets size (LogA), assets management, liquidity and deposits have a significant and positive impact on banks’ profitability. GDP, Inflation rate (IR) and Political instability have positive and significant impact on Yemeni banks’ profitability. Based on the best knowledge of the authors, this study is considered one of the first and pioneering studies that determine the factors affecting the profitability of Islamic banks of Yemen. Therefore, the study gives good insights for the policy makers, regulators and interested parties for enhancing the profitability of Islamic banks in Yemen.

This research identifies factors that explain the liquidity of commercial banks in the Vietnam banking system from 2010 to 2015. Using the OLS regression method for analysis, it was found that:

1. the interbank market helps commercial banks improve their liquidity;
2. the larger the loan size, the higher the liquidity risk;
3. good credit risk management has a positive impact on liquidity risk management; and
4. long-term interest rate is negatively related to the liquidity of commercial banks.

The research also makes recommendations on liquidity risk management policies to banks and policy-makers from the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issues and challenges of liquidity risk management in Islamic banks. At the same time, the authors are going to identify the sources of liquidity risk in Islamic banks and the common instruments used to mitigate liquidity mismatches in both sides of their balance sheets. The study is a qualitative study that uses secondary sources of data to describe and analyze risk mitigation in the Islamic banking context. Data were collected from libraries by referring to books, journals from both online and offline sources. The research objectives were addressed by critically analysing various issues from both the Islamic principles and contemporary applications. The authors found that Islamic liquidity management is an important building block for stable and efficient banking. Even though there are several attempts, for example, i) organized tawarruq (commodity murabahah), ii) salam sukuk and iii) short-term ijarah sukuk, to find solutions to the incessant problems of liquidity faced by majority of Islamic banks, there are still several underlying problems such as i) in terms of deficiency in infrastructure especially in countries where Islamic finance is still at an early stage, ii) lack of hedging instruments and iii) Shariah restrictions on some instruments. Regulatory bodies should come up with more innovative practices of Islamic liquidity management to solve unresolved theoretical issues and also meeting market requirements for liquidity.