Social Performance of Islamic Banks ˗ Theoretical and Practical Insights

This study analyzes the social performance of 40 Islamic banks from 13 countries over the period 2012-2018, aiming to investigate to what extent Islamic banks around the world meet the social goals of the Islamic moral economy. As key financial institutions that operate within the framework of the Islamic moral economy, Islamic banks are expected to play and emphasize their socio-economic role in society by improving their economic, social, ethical, and environmental performance. Therefore, social performance in this paper was measured via a comprehensive evaluation framework using a maqasid index based on disclosure analysis. The main findings suggested that Islamic banks achieved 35% of the maximum index value, which indicated a room for improving their social performance. There was an encouraging fact that social performance over the observed period grew on a yearly basis. The average growth rate of social performance per year was 3.58%, which did not guarantee significant changes in a short time, but it was evident that banks made some progress in this regard over the observed period. Moreover, the highest score of Islamic banks' social performance was recorded in the category I3 (“Self”) of the social performance index, which was based on the level of investment in the real sector, particularly small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). On the contrary, the lowest rating was registered in the category I5 (“Posterity”). An alarming fact was that Islamic banks demonstrated deficient environmental awareness and achieved low performance in this index component. Further, banks from Indonesia achieved the highest social performance. Also, to provide an easier understanding of the social performance of Islamic banks compared to the expectations of the Islamic moral economy, banks were categorized into specific categories according to a rating system similar to the CAMELS approach in conventional banking, but based on the Islamic moral economy social performance framework.