Credit Risk, Islamic Contracts and Ownership Status: Evidence From Malaysian Islamic Banks

Abstract

The paper attempts to model the key drivers of credit risk for Islamic banks in Malaysia. This paper is motivated to introduce Islamic financing types (IFT) and banks ownership status (STATUS) as additional factors in investigating the key drivers. This study also investigates the level of credit risk between the crisis and non-crisis period. This study employs a panel data analysis method using generalized least squares (GLS) regression for random effect model. The dependent variable is credit risk which assumed to be a function of bank-specific variables and other potential variables that are ownership status, Islamic financing types and financial crisis. The sample of this study comprised of 160 observations for 15 full-fledged Islamic banks in Malaysia, covering the period of 2000 to 2016. The finding suggests that financing expansion, financing and capital buffer are amongst important drivers that significantly influence the level of credit risk of Malaysian Islamic banks. The estimation results of this study also suggest that any Islamic bank that offers equity-based financing (EBF) has significantly higher credit risk.