RELEVANCE OF DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE PRESENCE OF ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) have gained popularity recently in the Islamic countries and countries with mixed religious practices. Due to its profit–loss sharing partnership contracts and integrated social and risk management practices, IFI can finance financially distressed firms, and firms with specialized sectors, better than the traditional development financial institutions (DFIs). Should they need large amount of financing, both existing financially unsuccessful industries and new development initiatives can be financed with Sukuk issuance. This chapter investigates the growth of these two industries – IFIs and DFIs, with respect to various indicators, compares the initiatives that establishe the dominating character of IFIs over the DFIs, discusses the reasons behind such turnaround, and the future of DFIs. IFIs have been enjoying a superior growth in assets and deposits, asset quality, risk management, and profitability over the DFIs in Malaysia. Among many, the study identifies regulatory incentives to IFIs, inefficient management of DFIs, and most importantly, a paradigm shift through Islamic finance as primary reasons behind gradual disappearance of DFIs. The next generation of IFIs will emerge as the Islamic Development Financial Institutions and may takeover the role that is played by the DFIs most recently.