The chief of Bank Negara, the central bank of Malaysia, at the ceremony to mark the establishment of the International Center for Education in Islamic Finance in 2006, alluded to the fast growth of the Islamic finance industry during the previous ten years. This observation is all the more relevant as the industry was in the process of being integrated within the international financial system as shown by the increasing demand for Shari'ah (Islamic common laws)-compliant products and services that had been desined over some four decades.

This study aims to examine the decision-making behaviour of Islamic banking practitioners of the United Arab Emirates with special reference to the operational line heterogeneity by employing factors that are religious in nature such as intellect, satanic force and divine knowledge as encapsulated in alGhazali's ethical philosophy. A total of 337 samples were collected from the Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates using a purposive sampling technique, and the empirical analysis was conducted with the measures of model fit and bootstrapping technique using Partial least square Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. The empirical findings reveal that the dedicated use of intellect in making decisions related to ethical issues where desires and emotions tend to overwhelm reason and human choices. While divine knowledge is found ineffective guidance of the intellect, the element of satanic force is found significantly impacting decision-making. As the lack of religious consciousness is evident among respondents, higher exposure to operational risk is expected. These findings were found identical across the Islamic banking practitioners in different lines of operations. Findings of the study highly suggest respective authorities of Islamic financial institutions to intensify the capacity-building programs on the foundation of faith which includes Islamic thought and worldview, to enhance the corporate ethical decision-making. Moreover, equal importance should be given to all the banking practitioners regardless of line of business operations. With undue emphasis is given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in the Islamic banking and finance industry, less has been attempted to explore its ethical dimension (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters that leave a relatively large gap to address prevailing unethical practices in Islamic finance institutions. Findings from this study can be useful as a warning to the Islamic banking firms to enhance the sense of God-fearing and improve existing measures in the organisation in mitigating operational risks that may arise from people or system and consequently ensure the smooth governance of the Islamic banks.

The study aims to address marketing effectiveness of both Islamic banks and conventional banks (CBs) by using a modified "chain-of-effect" framework. Against current literature, which is based on customer surveys, reports do not include marketing activities by the Islamic banks (IB); this study adopts a bank perspective to explore the IB's behavior in this regard. Applying fixed-effect panel regression on the quarterly data of five IBs and five CBs in Malaysia, the study aims to explore the influence of marketing efforts on performance.

The development of Islamic finance can be traced back to the establishment of the first Islamic bank in Malaysia, Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, in 1983. This chapter explores the various phases in the development of Islamic banking in Malaysia, including its future path in the coming decades. References will be made to the initiatives of the public and private sectors in contributing to the development of the Islamic banking industry. Coupled with the background of an open economy, opportunities for cross fertilisation have enabled the restructuring of the Islamic banking industry to meet the challenges of global competition. Available in physical copy only (Call Number: HG 3368 A6 I82Mo)

The journey of gender inclusion in Malaysia began in 2004 when the government pushed for 30% of decision making positions in the public sector to be filled by women. This was achieved in 2010. In 2011 the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) in its Corporate Governance Blueprint encouraged listed companies to develop gender diversity policies and to disclose its implementation toward achieving 30% target of women in their boards by 2015. However, this target was not achieved because of a number of factors, most important among them was that gender inclusion was only a recommendation and not a practice to be complied by listed companies. Besides, there was limited supply of women who were ready to join boards of listed companies as independent directors. Institutions directly and indirectly involved or connected with developing career opportunities for women up to board level were at their infancies (LeadWomen Malaysia established in 2011, and 30% Club Malaysia in 2013). At the same time recruitment of qualified directors especially independent directors to meet listing requirements took precedence over the female directors.

Ethics and ethical judgments are often referred to in day-to-day conversations but rarely unmistakably understood in terms of how they support our position when making decisions or choices that usually involve conflicting interests, benefits and the rights or well-being of others. Professionals have to consider their clients and leaders have to deal with the direction of the organization and the often conflicting claims of shareholders and stakeholders. We as citizens have to be guided by the law so that our self interests do not go against that of others and cause hardship or harm in the process. Ethics are relevant in social or interpersonal interactions. We can't escape having to deal with doing the right thing in the societal, business and social roles that we play. And we have to deal with these issues in the proper way given that we are not the only ones to judge the rightness or wrongness of our actions. What is perceived by us as good may be evaluated negatively by others perhaps due to the different criteria used to determine the worth of the action. To do the right thing requires that we know the basis of what is right and acceptable or praiseworthy, and what is wrong and therefore not acceptable. In other words, we have to be aware that our decisions or actions meet the standards or norms of right conduct or good behaviour. Just being a good and well intentioned person is therefore no guarantee that the action is ethical. Well intentioned incompetence is as bad as dishonesty.