The different impact of conventional interest rates on Islamic stock market, Islamic banking and Islamic insurance: evidence from Malaysia

This paper seeks to close the gap of the lack of empirical evidence surrounding the different impact of conventional interest rates on Islamic finance components – Islamic stock markets, Islamic banking and Islamic insurance (called takaful). Such evidence remains imperative in order for the Islamic finance system to formulate effective countermeasures against changes in conventional interest rates. Using Malaysia as a case in point, this paper employs time-series techniques to establish long-run and causal relationships among an Islamic stock market, an Islamic bank stock, an Islamic insurance company stock, the overnight conventional interbank money market rate and several control variables. Results suggest the distinct interaction of each Islamic finance component with conventional interest rates – the positive long-run relationship and bidirectional causality between Islamic stock markets and conventional interest rates, the negative long-run relationship and bidirectional causality between Islamic banking and conventional interest rates, and the negative long-run relationship and unidirectional causality from Islamic insurance to conventional interest rates. Policymakers should remain concerned primarily with the impact of conventional interest rates on Islamic stock markets and Islamic banking due to the negative income gap of Islamic banks which expose the Islamic finance system to higher financial risk. Thus, policymakers should incentivize Islamic banks to convert the negative income gap into a positive income gap through imposing higher capital requirements on fixed-rate nominal assets.