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Grade III and Grade IV sacral pressure sores are required surgical closure. The gluteal fascio-cutaneous rotation advancement flap with V-Y closure was performed in our hospital on 50 cases of sacral sore from 2017 to 2019. The largest defects closed with a unilateral flap were up to 14 cm, and a bilateral flap needed to close 15-22 cm in diameter. In 1.5 to 24 months of follow-up time, none of the patients developed wound dehiscence or flap necrosis requiring repeated surgery. The V-Y rotation advancement flap technique is simple, can be performed quickly, has minimal associated morbidity, and has a good outcome. Furthermore, we can use the same flap design in recurrent cases. TAJ 2022; 35: No-1: 33-38

The study investigates the time-varying efficiency of the four most commonly traded international commodities from the U.S. Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) over a more extended period as well as during COVID-19. The study also explores how adaptive behavior of returns induces profitable opportunities in the commodity markets. Daily returns of commodity indices (gold, silver, oil, metal) are divided into subsamples of six years, to apply a battery of linear/nonlinear tests. The study uncovers the linear and nonlinear serial dependence in returns from commodities and finds evidence of time-varying volatility, thus consistent with the Adaptive Market Hypothesis over the full sample period. Moreover, returns from all the commodities are highly volatile and predictable during COVID-19.

PurposeThe study of credit risk has been of the utmost importance when it comes to measuring the soundness and stability of the banking system. Due to the growing importance of Islamic banking system, a fierce competition between Islamic and conventional banks have started to emerge which in turn is impacting credit riskiness of both banking system.Design/methodology/approachUsing the system GMM technique on 283 conventional banks and 60 Islamic banks for the period of 2006–2017, this paper explores the important impact of size and competition on the credit risk in 15 dual banking economies.FindingsThe authors found that as bank competition increases credit risk seems to be reduced. On the size effect, the authors found that big Islamic banks are less risky than big conventional banks whereas small Islamic banks are riskier than small conventional banks. The results are robust for different panel data estimation models and sub-samples of different size groups. The findings of this paper provide important insights into the competition-credit risk nexus in the dual banking system.Originality/valueThe paper is specifically focused on credit risk in dual banking environment and tries to fill the gap in the literature by studying (1) do the Islamic and conventional banks exhibit a different level of credit risk; (2) does competition in the banking system impact the credit risk of Islamic and conventional banks and finally (3) do the big and small banks exhibit similar levels of credit risk.

PurposeTo examine the impact of corporate governance on Cost of Capital (COC) and financial distress in the ASEAN countries.Design/methodology/approachWe compiled a list of the 50 largest publicly listed firms by market capitalization in each of the following five East Asian countries, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Furthermore, we then divided the five countries into two distinctive categories – (i) Malaysia and Singapore (Common Law/strong legal protection countries) and (ii) Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia (Civil Law/weak legal protection countries). The annual data is collected for the time period ranging from 2006 to 2015, allowing a total observation of 1,317 firm years.FindingsOverall, the paper supports the findings of many researchers that Board independence, promulgating good corporate governance, leads to better access to capital at lower cost, thus providing growth opportunities for ASEAN region. Taking lead from Simpson and Gleason (1999) and similar, we emphasize that during financial distress CEO duality will strengthen control systems and reduce internal discord in ASEAN firms.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the niche studies that has incorporated the difference between civil and common law rule in the study of corporate governance and its impact on financial measures of firms' in the ASEAN countries.

This paper investigates the relationship between legal origin and banks’ risk-taking behavior. We employ GMM to study a sample of both Islamic and conventional banks from 14 dual banking economies from 2005–2018. Our findings can be summarized as follows: (a) bank risk-taking and legal origin are negatively related in our sample countries, (b) Islamic banks are more stable in English law (common) countries, and (c) bank regulations have a differential effect on Islamic and the conventional banks. Our overall findings align with the dark side of the legal framework, indicating a robust legal framework to encourage bank risk-taking. The results have several implications for shareholders, regulators, and other key stakeholders.

For the first time, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has consolidated its annual regional reports to produce one global benchmarking report, with the intention of presenting world-wide online alternative finance data for 2018.This report presents the key findings from the CCAF annual global survey of online alternative finance. In all, 1,227 unique firms contributed to this study, providing 2,322 firm-level observations globally. Investigating in crowdfunding, P2P/marketplace lending or related capital raising activities, the study shows that 47 per cent of the firms were operating in two or more countries or jurisdictions. Highlights from the report In 2018, the global alternative finance industry facilitated USD $304.5 billion in transaction volume. This global alternative finance volume is representative of funds that were raised via an online alternative finance platform for consumers, business and other fundraisers. This volume represents a 27 per cent annual decline against the $419 billion recorded in 2017. However, this drop in global volume stems primarily from a sharp decline in alternative finance activities in China. Excluding the Chinese market, the global alternative finance market volume actually grew by 48 per cent year-on-year, from the $60 billion in 2017 to $89 billion In 2018. China had the largest alternative finance volume by country, having generated a total of $215.37 billion in 2018. The United States ($61 billion) and the United Kingdom ($10.4 billion) came in second and third respectively. In 2018, five additional countries surpassed the $1 billion threshold of alternative finance market volume including the Netherlands ($1.8 billion), Indonesia ($1.45 billion), Germany ($1.27 billion), Australia ($1.16 billion) and Japan ($1.07 billion). In 2018, online alternative business funding for start-ups and SMEs accounted for $82 billion, which fell by almost half from the high of $153 billion recorded in 2017. Much like the global total market volume, this significant reduction in alternative business funding was largely due to the sharp decline in business focused funding activity in China. Excluding China, global business funding through alternative channels increased from the $21 billion in 2017 to $31 billion in 2018. This represented a 47 per cent annual increase against the previous year. Approximately $162 billion of alternative finance volumes directly stem from funding provided by institutional investors such as banks, pension funds, mutual funds and family offices. With the involvement of institutional investors on the rise, most regions were fairly equally split, with roughly 50 per cent of funding coming from the institutions and rest provided by retail investors.

In the year 2007 British banks witnessed the first run on to their very own banks due to various scandals that tarnished the trust and reputations of the banks and the banking industry. Simultaneously, the sub-prime crisis was happening to major banks in the US, France and some other countries that were sharing a high systemic risk. When a systemic risk is high and at the same time if banks don’t keep enough reserved capital to compensate their clients during a crisis period, this situation could lead to a recession, high unemployment, and eventually economic collapse. Since then, stakeholders lost their trust in the banking system globally and were demanding for a more socially responsible, ethical, and systemic stable form of banking. True enough, in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), Islamic finance banking and the Fintech industry were proliferating to fill the existing void in the finance industry by their innovation and a different approach to business transactions. At that time, the faith inspired in the form of ethical banking was enjoying steady growth. Advancement in technology was also facilitating the rapid growth of revolution in Islamic-Fintech (i-Fintech) industry.

The banking and financial landscape in the last decade has been inundated with ‘technology’. Financial Technology (FinTech), Insurance Technology (InsurTech) and Regulatory Technology (RegTech) are just some of the new buzzwords. Close to 80% of Fintech investments happen in the US, while it is growing rapidly in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Fintech development is gaining ground with the support of the regional governments in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In comparison to conventional finance, Fintech’s penetration into Islamic finance institutions (IFIs) in the GCC is still in its very early stages. This chapter aims to highlight the development of Fintech in general and GCC in particular.

Cryptocurrency has emerged as a new form of digital currency based on blockchain technology, but it is still in its infancy. There is a need for effective regulation surrounding cryptocurrency to have a quicker maturity and wide accessibility to everyone which could result in more efficiency in its usage. This chapter explores cryptocurrencies’ emergence and acceptance in line with its regulatory challenges. This chapter will help to better understand benefits, challenges and existing regulations behind cryptocurrencies. Besides, the chapter pinpoints other economic promises drawing from cryptocurrency advancement.

The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has quickly evolved from a provincial health scare to a global meltdown. While it has brought nearly half the world to a standstill it has affected the financial markets in unseen ways by eroding a quarter of wealth in nearly a month. This paper investigates the reaction of financial markets globally in terms of their decline and volatility as Coronavirus epicentre moved from China to Europe and then to the US. Findings suggest that the earlier epicentre China has stabilized while the global markets have gone into a freefall especially in the later phase of the spread. Even the relatively safer commodities have suffered as the pandemic moves into the US.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the default characteristics of Sukuk issues by corporate firms in Malaysia using value-at-risk (VaR) techniques over a period of 16 years from 2000 to 2015 and across nine economic sectors.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs non-parametric and Monte Carlo simulations to estimate Sukuk defaults.FindingsThe authors analyses revealed that the VaR predictions were fairly consistent with the ratings provided by credit rating agencies, despite the limited tradability of Sukuk in the secondary market. The study was able to demonstrate that Sukuk is not riskier than conventional bonds in the Malaysian context.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings suggested that VaR values will depend on the fundamental value of a firm based on the considerations of market, credit and operational risk. It does not rely on the type of debt instrument, whether a Sukuk or conventional bonds.Practical implicationsThe use of Sukuk along with conventional bonds as debt instruments creates opportunities for investors and bond issuers globally.Originality/valueAlthough Sukuk has generated much interest among financial market players, studies are lacking on how to predict Sukuk defaults and whether Sukuk has the same risk profile compared to conventional bonds.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine if the hedging strategy of the firm adds value to the firm, and if so, is the source of the benefit consistent with the hedging theory? Design/methodology/approach The paper used data from 129 top non-financial Indian companies spanning a period of 2008-2015 and analyzed using the ordinary least squares regression technique. Findings The study finds that firms engaged in hedging compared to non-hedgers have less volatility in the firm’s value. The use of hedging during the financial crisis is found to be value enhancing for the hedgers. The results also found that some firms do not disclose the notional value of derivatives clearly, which highlights the need of clear regulation for derivative declaration in the annual reports. Research limitations/implications Research implications of this study are to gain an insight into the hedging effectiveness in the highly volatile Indian market as compared to developed countries. High volatility in the exchange rate of Indian rupee further makes it one of the most relevant markets to study the effect of hedging on the firm’s value. Practical implications Mostly hedging is done purely for risk management, and if managers try to time the market by selective hedging, it can bring a negative impact for the firm. Findings show that managers should manage their hedging strategy based on changing the economic environment and not purely on the firms’ financial value. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study to extract the dollar value of derivative usage of sample firms and analyze its effectiveness in enhancing firm value in the presence of other financial parameters. This will be an advancement of previous studies, which used hedging as a dummy variable only. Most studies on this topic are carried out in developed countries; there is a limited research on developing markets such as India, and past studies have been more generic one like determinants of hedging and overall derivative scenario.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the time-varying changes of the three parameters, volatility, efficiency and integration on stock markets across emerging markets. We do this using a four-step process with focus on Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis to measure its efficiency. Our analysis show that lower volatility was found in short-term for countries that experienced fast paced economic growth. This increase in volatility is supported by a decrease in efficiency for the short-term, while market integration rose during periods of crises, which represent higher volatility. Hence, a tripartite relationship between our parameters is observed.

An index-linked coupon bond is defined that pays coupons whose values are stochastic, depending on a market defined index. This is an asset class distinct from the existing coupon bonds. The index-linked coupon bond is an example of a sukuk, which is an instrument that implements one of the cornerstones of Islamic finance (Askari et al., 2012): that an investor must share in the risk of the issuer in order to earn profits from the investment. The index-linked coupon bond is defined using the mathematical framework of quantum finance (Baaquie, 2004, 2010). The coupons are stochastic, with the quantum of coupon payments depending on a publicly traded index that is chosen to reflect the primary drivers of the revenues of the issuer of the bond. The index ensures there is information symmetry – regarding the quantum of coupon being paid – between issuer and investor. The dependence of the coupon on the index is designed so that the variation of the index mirrors the changing fortunes of the issuer, with the coupon’s quantum increasing for increasing values of the index and conversely, decreasing with a fall of the index.

This paper investigates competition and risk-taking behaviour of Islamic banks taking a sample of 59 Islamic banks and 149 conventional banks from 10 highly developed Islamic banking countries between 2006 and 2016. The level of competitiveness between the two types of banks is determined using Lerner index and estimations show that Islamic banks have lower market power than conventional banks. After controlling all the bank and country-specific variables, the results show that competition and risk are positively related for the overall banking system and inversely related for Islamic banks which undoubtedly emphasize that inherent difference between risk-competition relationships among these two distinct bank types. Overall, in the case of Islamic banks, the results provide evidence in favour of “competition stability view” where higher competitive market associated with fierce competition from conventional banks and its peers' reduce Islamic banks' risk-taking behaviour. Keywords: Banking, Competition, Risk taking, Islamic banking, Regulation, Risk management, JEL classification: G20, G21, G28

This chapter provides an insight into the potential usage of fintech in the banking landscape and issues faced by bankers and regulators in regulating the usage of fintech and cryptocurrency, and what the potential areas are where the technology can be misused. It considers how the regulation of technology usage in the financial services landscape is important to avoiding financial crime. The chapter also provides case studies from countries such as Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, who are taking a lead in regulating fintech and digital currency usage. It examines an example from Malaysia to demonstrate how a central bank is taking the lead by issuing a fintech regulatory sandbox. Fintech powered by blockchain technology has huge importance for the financial services industry and can come in handy to solve problems such as delays, cost, duplication and reconciliation. Fintech describes financial services using innovative or disruptive technology to enhance customer’s experience.

Literature is rife with studies on efficiency of stock markets and financial performance aspects. One such aspect is the measurement of sectoral efficiency amongst stock markets. While there are several studies analysing sectorial efficiency, there is no study on the efficiency of Islamic sector indexes. The rise of Islamic indices has raised the question and multiple studies have been undertaken in exploring and validating the better performance from a risk return framework for the Islamic indices. This study attempts to pioneer in this niche area by conducting a comparative analysis of 10 sectoral global indices for both conventional and Islamic counterpart spanning over 18 years. The sample time period runs from 1 January 1996 until 31 December 2014. To further validate our study, we have divided our data into four major time periods, to factor in different phases the world markets have gone through in the sample period, i.e. 1996–2000; 2001–2002; 2003–2006 and 2006 to 2014. The methodology selected in understanding the efficiency of these sectoral stock indices is the multifractal de-trended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). Our analysis reveals that in the shorter horizon, efficiency tends to follow a similar pattern amongst the conventional and Islamic counterpart. Furthermore, Islamic sectoral indices generally tend to exhibit a higher efficiency regime across the last decade. Overall, Islamic index seems to have stayed attractive and resilient, allowing conformity with the weak form efficient market hypothesis.

Islamic banks should share their profits and losses with their customers through equity financing but most of their assets are mark-up financing, which resembles loans. Theoretically, one of the reasons is Islamic banks operate in poor contracting environments where equity financing is very risky. Using fixed-effects models, we examine whether better contracting environments induce Islamic banks to shift from mark-up to equity financing. We find no evidence that contracting environments do, which means debt-like instruments will continue dominating Islamic banks’ assets in the near future.

This study investigates the impact of the Board characteristics, Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO) power and Shariah supervision on Earnings Management (EM) within conventional and Islamic banks. We provide evidence that EM levels do not significantly differ between Islamic and conventional banks. Contrary to public belief, additional value-based attributes such as the Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) that promotes ethical and religious values, do not help in the restriction of opportunistic behaviour in Islamic banks. Additionally, attributes such as board size, firm size and leverage have a significant negative influence on EM of both Islamic and conventional banks. Our results are important in deliberating that the word ‘Islamic’ must not be used merely as a profit manifestation, but instead must promote a value-based business, which in turn could ensure reliability and sustainability.

Financial institutions are embracing digitalization to improve the delivery of financial services. To realize the full potential of digitalization, financial institutions are applying artificial intelligence, augmented reality, biometrics and cloud computing amongst others in their financial services offerings. While financial institutions are getting transformed due to digitalization, they are also getting disrupted from the rising force of fintech startups. If not catered for the digital disruption, the startups have the potential to shrink the role and relevance of incumbent financial institutions. This chapter delves into how the financial sector, including Islamic finances, is getting transformed in the wake of digitalization.

Fintech is redefining the financial services customer journey. The digital era has unleashed a disruptive development and emergence across the financial industry allowing financial technology firms to attract previously “unbanked” people in emerging markets while holding already existing conventional bank customer. The fintech sector evolved after the global financial crisis in 2008, despite obstacles such as poor infrastructure and limited internet penetration. Fintech is a new generation of tech-savvy firms that are supported by disruptive technologies such as behavioural and transactional analytics, machine learning, big data, blockchain, biometrics, cloud and mobile. Fintech would allow conventional market participants to overhaul the old-fashioned procedures, operational model and their infrastructure which eventually renovates the end user experience. This chapter will explore the emergence and global evolution of fintech.

A smart contract is a disruptive technology and gaining market share at a rapid pace. The main purpose of smart contract is to facilitate the transfer of digital assets between the contracting parties based on pre-agreed stipulations or terms. The concept of smart contracts makes enormous sense to Islamic financial institutions to implement it for Islamic financing services. A smart contract is closer to Islamic contract and in compliance with Shariah objective to ensure transparency in business dealings or transactions such as asset definition, payment terms, enforcement and following the principle of trust. This chapter focuses on the application of smart contract in Islamic finance in areas of cash financing, trade financing, remittance and so on.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are making inroads in the financial sector including Islamic finance. Islamic financial institutions are jumping into the bandwagon although in the early stage of catching up digitalization wave to offer efficiency, convenient and better experience to the customers. Financial institutions working on blockchain enable them to reduce the transactions cost, but also create new products and services that can generate new revenue streams. In Islamic finance, blockchain can be applied for smart contracts, payment and remittance as well as streamlining the business processes. This chapter explores the application of blockchain in different financial services offerings of Islamic finance such as payment and remittance.

One among many of the substantial reasons that caused the growth of Islamic finance in the previous decade was its business model that proved its worth and value by avoiding the sub-prime crisis. Losing trust on conventional banking industry, penetration of internet and technology globally, lack of accessibility of funds to everyone no matter with or without track record with banks, speed of transactions, transaction cost along with clients craving for a trustworthy financial system among other reasons were main incentives behind the growth and expansion of the Islamic fintech. This chapter presents the challenges and success factors for Islamic fintech in the time to come and how the industry can cope up with those challenges.