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A comprehensive guide to current issues and practices in governance for Takaful and re-Takaful operations As the global demand for Islamic insurance products increases, a thorough understanding of Takaful principles is vital for accountants, auditors, and leaders of companies offering these products. This book covers the basic accounting principles and practices of Takaful operations, including the segregation of assets, liabilities, income, and expenditures between the Takaful operator and participants; the setting aside of cash reserves for meeting outstanding claims and future claims; and the management of revenue and expenditure. Featuring extensive case studies from real-world situations, this book is the perfect primer for accounting students and practitioners unfamiliar with Islamic finance and Takaful operations. Written by experts from the International Islamic University Malaysia, the leading organisation in research in Islamic finance Covers all the major accounting principles and practices Based on real-world experience and packed with illustrative case studies For practicing accountants and business leaders, this book offers a thorough education in Takaful operations while also serving as an excellent guide for undergraduate students and researchers.

Purpose This study aims to examine whether citizens of non-Muslim countries accept products with a “halal” logo. In the era of globalization, one of the most crucial issues for Muslim travelers is reliable halal foods when visiting non-Muslim countries. If people in non-Muslim countries accept imported products containing halal certification logos, and such products are readily available in shops, this issue could be substantially improved. Design/methodology/approach Malaysia and Japan were selected as Muslim and non-Muslim countries, respectively, to conduct a choice experiment (CE) for 656 non-Muslim subjects, and estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for mineral water with and without the halal logo. A random parameter logit model was used for estimation. Findings The difference between the WTP for mineral water with and without the halal logo was ¥5; however, the associated coefficient is not statistically significant. This implies that the halal logo has no impact on non-Muslim subjects’ purchasing behavior. From this, we can infer that the halal products with certification logo would be accepted in Japanese shops, which may foster foreign Muslim visits. Research limitations/implications As the results are based on a couple of countries (Malaysia and Japan) and only one product (mineral water), further investigation using other products in different countries would be necessary. However, as suggested in the main text, the results enjoy a degree of generalizability. Originality/value The results of this study support the possibility of circulating halal products in non-Muslim countries and thus promoting Muslim travel abroad. No such study has examined this issue using CE.

Purpose Insurance is a modern risk-management tool. Although the idea is novel, its practice is not free of interest, uncertainty and elements of gambling. Takaful has been introduced as an alternative to modern insurance. India has an established insurance industry, and although the country has the second largest Muslim population in the world, takaful has not been introduced there. Moreover, no research has examined how internal forces affect policy-holders to buy new insurance products such as takaful in India. This study aims to examine whether internal factors influence individual insurance policy-holders to open up to takaful. As internal factors reflect the innovative nature of policy-holders, this paper seeks to determine whether there is significant difference in the innovative nature of two independent sample groups (e.g. between Muslims and non-Muslims) in participating in takaful. Design/methodology/approach New product adoption theory is used in developing the hypotheses and a questionnaire. Snowball sampling method is used in this survey, with a sample size of 909 respondents, including Muslim and non-Muslim policy-holders. The internal forces that encourage potential policy-holders to participate in takaful is the independent variable here, while the respondents’ actual willingness to participate in takaful is the dependent variable. Religion and level of education are used as control variables, and regression and T-tests are performed to analyze the data. Findings Results show that the internal factors have significant impact at 1 per cent on the acceptance of takaful by policy-holders. There is also a significant difference in the innovative nature between Muslims and non-Muslims. Mean values from the T-test show that Muslims are more innovative than non-Muslims in India, offering a good sign for India to start offering takaful, as Muslims could be the core customer base. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on internal factors influencing individual policy-holders’ willingness to participate in takaful. The findings can be the starting point for future research exploring the influence of external factors on such willingness to participate with potential benefits to local authorities, investors, insurance companies and the public in India. Originality/value This study provides crucial information about the demand side of takaful in India. The innovative nature of Indian policy-holders signals positive potential for operators to offer takaful in India and to concerned regulatory bodies to expedite its introduction to the market.

Purpose – This research aims to examine the viability of micro-health takaful in Malaysia. Current practices in the takaful industry in Malaysia reveal that takaful operators (TOs) are keen on offering products that are affordable for middle- to high-income people. However, the concept of takaful is based on mutual help, and, hence, it is believed that TOs should offer products affordable by the poor and lower income people. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve this objective, the interest of the poor to participate in this product is examined by sending the questionnaire. In addition, TOs were approached to understand why micro-health takaful products have not been offered as yet. The regulator was also interviewed to gauge whether the government is supportive of this scheme. Findings – From the survey, it was noted that the poor people are interested to participate in such a scheme. However, most of them are only willing to contribute about RM5 per month, while some of the respondents, especially, zakat recipients are unable to afford to pay at all. The zakat authority when interviewed stated they were unable to contribute on behalf of the zakat recipients. To a certain extent, zakat authority is required to obtain an approval from the National Fatwa Council with regard to that issue. The regulator views that the micro takaful is still in an experimental stage. From the perspective of TOs, it might be viable if the product is offered as part of the corporate social responsibility, rather than by individual operators. Therefore, it could be summed up that micro-health takaful will be viable if and only if TOs collectively offer it as a part of their corporate social responsibility, and it must be subsidized by the zakat or waqf authorities. Research limitations/implications – Particularly, this study only considers a limited geography in Malaysia to understand the viability of micro-health. On the same note, the current focus of the study is on micro-health takaful in which it has not tapped other potential micro takaful products. Originality/value – This study is a pioneering effort in understanding the viability of the micro health takaful in Malaysia.

Canada adopts a policy of required automobile insurance and banks require house insurance before approving home loans. There have been numerous scandals in volving fraud from insurance subscribers and manipulation from insurers. This has created a tense environment of mistrust resulting in poor insurance subscriptions, especially concerning life insurance. In consideration of the general dissatisfaction with insurance in Canada, this paper explores the future outlook of Islamic insurance in Canada by examining the opportunities available in Canada. The favourable circumstances for offering Islamic insurance is growing the GDP rate, and Canadian acceptance of mutual and faith based insurance, the possibility of integrating the concepts of Takaful in commercial insurance and in Christian faith based mutual insurance, along with the growing Muslim population in Canada. This paper encourages insurance companies and regulators to explore this new market segment, i.e. offering Islamic insurance as a means to boost the insurance industry. Since Canada is a very diverse country with many religions and cultural backgrounds, accepting Islamic insurance is a reasonable step towards realising a truly free multicultural society. It is expected that the findings of this paper will be of interest to Muslims, investors, insurance companies and regulators.

[...]in India, there are 24 life insurance companies with a total number of 11,032 offices, with 79.6% of global life insurance premiums, and 28 general insurance companies with 9,872 offices, with 20.4% of global general insurance premiums.3 Thus, the Indian insurance sector is booming. Offering Takaful will attract investors who are looking for Shari'ah compliant investment opportunities. [...]it will be able to reach the potential policy holders, especially Muslim policy holders, who are looking for Shari'ah compliant and ethical insurance products. The majority of the general insurance policy holders in India are not buying insurance due to the non-Shari'ah compliant nature of insurance. [...]it is a big loss if Takaful is not offered in India. According to Ernst & Young,6 it has the positive growth momentum in key markets such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Malaysia and the global Takaful industry is expected to reach US$20 billion in 2017. [...]if Takaful is offered in India, it will be able to attract both Muslims and non-Muslims based on its ethical nature and suitability from a religious point of view. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Politicians in India are interviewed since they are involved in policy making and influence government policy.8 Geurts9 stated that public policy makers can be politicians who are members of parliament, council, or a member or representative of an interest group. For investors, since India is the land of opportunity with plenty of room for foreign direct investment in the insurance sector with a high Muslim populated area, the findings...

Corporate governance theories, namely the agency theory, stewardship theory and stakeholder theory, have been used in developing the best practices of corporate governance. However, corporate scandals leading to the downfall of financial giants such as Enron and WorldCom in 2003 and the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 have revealed serious inadequacies in the effectiveness of corporate governance. Therefore, these governance failures motivate the researchers to revisit and evaluate corporate governance theories from the ethical point of view. The main aim of this study is to propose \"The Universal Corporate Governance Theory\" which is developed based on the ethical teachings of Christians, Judaism, Islam, Sikh, Hinduism and Buddhism. It is expected that this ethical based theory will be applicable and acceptable for all types of organizations at any space and time. It is also believed that if the top corporate players are molded by this proposed theory, it will bring the social and economic justice what we are dreaming to achieve. Our proposed Universal Corporate Governance Theory is \"Corporate players must be responsible and accountable in discharging their duty to achieve socio economic justice\". [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]