Assessing risk and profitability of Islamic banks: a comparison between Islamic and conventional banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council

This is a study on assessing the risk and profitability associated with Islamic bank investments and operations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for three years from 2009 to 2011. It is mainly focused on measuring risk and profitability by looking at stock returns, bond ratings and financial institution ratios. Stock returns of Islamic banks were analyzed and compared to stock returns of commercial banks in five countries. Credit ratings for all Islamic banks with issued bonds were compared to those of conventional banks. In addition, banking industry financial ratios were used to analyze the operations of two types of banks, with the sample including all listed banks. The study revealed that Islamic banks have higher average stock returns and slightly higher standard deviations, reflecting high returns and risks compared to conventional banks. After scaling ratings into numbers, the credit ratings were found to favor conventional banks, with an average rating of A- for long term investments and A-2 for short term investments. With regards to financial ratios, the t-test and F-test results showed that there were significant differences between the means of the two bank types. Return on equity, return on assets and deposit to equity ratios were in favor of conventional banks. Islamic banks had a higher equity to asset ratio, loan to deposit ratio and interest margin to earning assets. Finally, ' there is no significant difference between the two bank types' means with regards to coverage ratio, earning assets to asset ratio and market return on equity. --Leaf 1.