The Role of Asset-Liability Management on Financial Stability in Malaysia

Abstract

Financial stability in the Malaysian Islamic banking sector is a popular issue that should be given attention by all financial service practitioners, including bank management, regulators, and popolicymakersIn this regard, Islamic banking institutions are stable not only in terms of their ability to be resilient, but also in their financial stability when it concerns their smooth functioning as effective intermediaries. However, to achieve the goals for stability, the Islamic banking sector often faces a mismatch between assets and liabilities, which may contribute to financial instability. Based on the above-mentioned issues and problems, the objective of this study is to describe the asset and liability management practices in Malaysian Islamic banking institutions. To achieve these objectives, the study used methods of estimation on a panel data set (a combination of time series and cross-section) which contains 211 observations from 16 Islamic banks (full-fledged Islamic banks) in Malaysia from 1997 to 2016. The model estimation results showed that the profitability of Islamic banking is influenced by various factors such as asset quality, liquidity, financing, credit risk, deposit ratio, zakat, other liabilities, and capital adequacy. The study found that the asset quality ratio variable has a positive relationship with the profitability of Islamic banking, while the total asset ratio variable has a negative relationship. The liquidity ratio variable, on the other hand, has a positive relationship with the profitability of Islamic banking. The article concludes that these findings have implications for the management of assets and liabilities in Islamic banking, particularly in terms of maintaining high asset quality and liquidity while managing credit risk and capital adequacy.