The Impact of Shariah Governance Mechanisms on the Performance of Islamic Banks and Windows the Case of Oman

The present research aims to explore and investigate the impacts of Shariah governance mechanisms on the performance of Islamic banks and windows banks in Sultanate of Oman. This is carried out through a mixed-methods research design to achieve the study objectives. The research population consist of two full-fledged Islamic banks and six Islamic windows banks in Oman from the beginning of their establishment in 2013 until 2020. This study adopts stakeholder theory to verify the role of the Shariah governance mechanisms in protecting the rights of stakeholders in relation to the compliance with Shariah. In the quantitative part, the study data was collected to examine the Shariah governance mechanisms and their impacts on the performance of Islamic banks. These data were obtained from two sources (annual reports of Islamic banks, and the reports of the central bank of Oman). Furthermore, the use of ratio analyses was employed to measure the financial and non-financial performance of Islamic banks. Afterward, the SPSS software was used to analyze the regression analysis between the independent variables (Shariah governance mechanisms) and dependent variables (Financial, and non-financial performances). The qualitative aspect of the study focuses on the objective of exploring
emerging Shariah Governance mechanism (SGM) practices in Oman, whereby data was collected through in-depth interviews with internal Shariah reviewers (ISR) and samples of Shariah Supervisory board (SSB) in the banks under study. The quantitative results showed that there is a relationship between the Shariah governance mechanisms and the financial and non-financial performance of the banks under study. The regression results indicate a positive regression correlation between SSB size, SSB meeting attendance, SSB nonvoting members, SSB competency, and SSB expertise with financial performance of Islamic banks in Oman. High positive regression correlation between size of SSB, and percentage of SSB expertise with non-financial performance of Islamic banks in Oman. However, other governance variables, such as compensation of SSB members showed no relationship while there is inverse relationship for SSB meetings to financial performance. In addition, there is a positive regression correlation between SSB size, and SSB expertise with non-financial performance of Islamic banks in Oman, while there is an inverse relationship with SSB meetings, SSB attendance, and SSB competency. Regression analysis showed no relationship between SSB nonvoting and SSB compensation with non-financial performance of Islamic banks. Nevertheless, the qualitative results showed that most banks maintain the minimum requirements of IBRF. The current study identified that the main challenges of Islamic banks is the lack of expertise and qualified people in Oman in the jurisprudence of transactions and Islamic banking. Finally, the current study contributed to
bridge the gap of intensive and in-depth research in the areas of Shariah governance mechanisms (SGM) and its impact on the performance of Islamic banks and windows in Oman.