The COVID-19 outbreak has caused unprecedented upheavals to the global economy at a scale never seen before in the history of humankind. While governments around the world grappled for the right panacea to address the socio-economic disruptions faced by their nations, the pandemic uncovered new outlook and opportunities. This inevitably compelled the global economies to revisit and reshape their thinking, re-prioritize, re-plan and start implementing initiatives that are more sustainable, resilient, and social in nature. In this regard, banking system plays a vital role in strengthening and sustaining the economy of a country. In doing so, it must ensure that it facilities and supports the recovery measures as announced by its respective government for the survival of the nation particularly the bottom sector of the society during this challenging time.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues wrecking global economies on an unprecedented scale. Despite its socio-economic damage, the pandemic has triggered a significant acceleration in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) uptake, including a mainstreaming and maturing of responsible investment philosophies and practices. According to Morningstar, the first three months of 2021 saw US$21.5 billion of net inflows into ESG funds. This was more than the previous record of US$20.5 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2020 and more than double the US$10.4 billion seen one year ago in the first quarter of 2020. Blackrock reported that 88% of sustainable funds in their analysis outperformed their non-sustainable counterparts in the period 1 January to 30 April 2020.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has estimated that the financing gap of member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is about USD1 trillion per year, of which USD700 billion is earmarked for infrastructure. Even though 40% of world poor live in OIC countries earning the equivalent of USD1.25 a day or less, as of 2017, the world's 14 development banks including those of Asia and Africa have offered no more than USD175 billion to address the gap. Dr. Banda Hajjar, the IDB President, aptly described the available amount "represents only a drop in the sea compared to the size of this gap" (Moqana 2019).1 To meet the expectation of the SDG, the amount estimated is in the range of USD5-7 billion each year. The difficult task of achieving SDG calls for meaningful collaboration and mobilization of all key stakeholders - individual governments, multilateral agencies as well as private funding sectors (UNDP, IICPSD and IDB 2017). This will be met through high-level discussions, studies and researches, dialogues centred on the existing available infrastructure and capabilities, highlighting challenges that hinder progress and crafting realistic means and ways to address this critical gap.

Shari'ah compliance is the raison d’etre for the existence of Islamic banking and finance industry. A robust Shari'ah compliance can be achieved through an effective Shari'ah governance system. In view of its importance, Malaysia has in the last three decades developed robust legal and regulatory framework that aims to accommodate and facilitate the evolution of Shari'ah governance structure in its Islamic banking and finance industry. The implementation of the current Shari'ah governance framework has guided and assisted the Islamic banking and finance industry in mitigating the cost of Shari'ah risk in their operations and business. As a result, consumers' trust and confidence in the banking and finance sector is secured and sustained. Based on this background, this chapter explores the historical development of the Malaysian Shari'ah governance infrastructures that took place before and after the promulgation of the Islamic Financial Services Act in 2013 (IFSA). The implications of IFSA on the Shari'ah governance system are hereafter analyzed. In general, IFSA has shifted the Shari'ah governance landscape into a more meaningful governance through its inclusivity and uniformity approach.

The term gig economy was first coined in 2009 by Tina Brown, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast, an online news magazine. At the time of her writing, the world was bearing the brunt of the global economic recession. The ensuing economic woes accelerated the proliferation of gig workers who made a living by taking on on-demand jobs as part-timers, freelancers, independent contractors and project-based workers. Fast forward eleven years to 2020, the economic downturn from massive layoffs and business closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is seeing the spur of worldwide gig economic activities. The widespread use of the Internet and the rise of digital platforms have helped those who lost their jobs to use them to make a living, sparking the popularity and exponential growth of this sector. The gig economy, also dubbed the 'sharing economy', 'collaborative economy', 'digital economy', 'crowd economy', and 'peer economy', is recognised as a new economic source of revenue across the globe and in Malaysia too. With close to four million freelance workers in Malaysia, and increasing by the day, the gig economy forms a key part of the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (2021-2025) (Lim, 2021).

Intangible assets are regarded as one of the most important asset classes for financial institutions, and their importance and consideration is rapidly increasing. There are existing, well established conventional standards on intangible assets (IA); however the Shariah standard on IA is discussed rather minimally. Thus, this paper attempts to discuss the vital issues related to intangible assets: recognition and measurement, financing and trading, and zakah, which represents a grey area for the Islamic finance industry. The research employs critical analysis. It aims to provide clarification on the concept of intangible assets from the point of view of the Shariah as well as an analysis of pertinent Shariah issues on IA. This research explores the following: (i) there is an issue of gharar in the identification and determination of IA due to non-existence of any physical substance and due to future benefit being a probabilistic matter; (ii) it is generally permissible to finance and trade IA and (iii) zakah is obligatory on IA if the intention is to trade them either at sale price if they are sold or at market price if they are owned by a trader.

Intangible assets are becoming evident in a number of Islamic financial products. Their presence in the Islamic financial market is due to their ability to address and accommodate the pressing need to diversify the asset pool in the industry. Despite their increasing presence in a number of Islamic financial products, their nature and characteristics have not been the subject of the research they deserve. Hence this research is undertaken to examine the definition, concept and legality of this class of asset: intangible assets. This paper aims to achieve the following objectives: i. To explore the definition and concept of intangible assets from Shariah, legal and accounting perspectives; and ii. To examine pertinent Shar??ah issues on intangible assets, particularly with regard to recognition and measurement, financing and trading, and zakah obligation.

Financial reporting has undergone tremendous development in the last couple of years. It traditionally discloses financial results that mainly consist of income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow. This information aids its shareholders, customers as well as the public to assess and measure the financial performance of the corporation or organization. It also informs them of the resource allocation, investment decision that affects the business operations in that particular year. However, such format of reporting has in recent years faced disruption due to the introduction of Integrated Reporting (IR). The style of reporting under IR is that it reports not only financial but non-financial information. It gives emphasis on value creation and sustainability as well as future outlook of a company via its short-, medium-, and long-term planning.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the 2020 global economic growth. Amidst lingering uncertainties of the effects of COVID-19, governments around the world have set out measures to assist its economies through economic stimulus packages and interest rate cut. At the international front, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 25 March 2020 issued a joint statement calling on all bilateral creditors to suspend debt payments from International Development Association (IDA) countries that request forbearance (IMF 2020). A similar call was made by central banks around the world. On 24 March 2020, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) ordered banking institutions to grant an automatic moratorium on all loan/financing repayments/payments, principal and interest (except for credit card balances) to all individuals and SME borrowers/customers for a period of six months from 1 April 2020 (BNM 2020).

This paper aims to examine the existing practices and pertinent issues affecting Islamic banks and their customers in abandoned housing projects (AHPs) to ensure compliance with Shari'ah and statutory requirements. This study employs the qualitative research method using the inductive approach to analyze both primary and secondary data and sources. Data collection involved a series of semi-structured interviews with five volunteering Islamic banks and a representative of Abandoned Property Owners Association Malaysia (Victims). Statutory acts, regulatory policies, guidelines, directives and standards were also analyzed. The result indicates developer's default, underlying contracts, regulatory arbitrage and bureaucracy, attitudinal disposition of customers and sell-then-build approach as major factors of AHP's conundrum. This study has suggested both short- and long-term solutions based on the principles of justice, public interests and removal of hardship to resolve and effectively manage financial hardship indebtedness arising from housing abandonment. Further, part of the proposed solutions would also reshape housing development policies and home financing transactions.

The Islamic banking industry in Malaysia is governed by the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA). This legislation marks another step in the evolution of the Islamic banking industry in Malaysia. Among its unique components, it re-classifies deposittaking products into two, namely Islamic deposits and investment accounts. The distinction has brought about a significant impact on the role that Islamic banks have traditionally been playing. The move from purely a credit intermediary to a mixed credit-and-investment intermediary is expected to promote real economic growth and development. In IFSA, investment account is defined as an account under which money is paid and accepted for the purposes of investment. This must be in accordance with the Shariah on terms that there is no expressed or implied obligation for the Islamic bank to repay the money in full or with any profit. This definition is instrumental as it explicitly distinguishes the character of an investment account from an Islamic deposit account as the latter guarantees return of the capital with or without a profit. This definition embeds statutorily the true spirit of Shariah-compliant investments, namely profit and loss sharing in musharakah, profit sharing and loss bearing in mudarabah and fee-based in wakalah bil istithmar.