Assessing the Financial Performance of Islamic Banking: The Case of Sudanese Banks

This research aims to explore and investigate the interrelationship between performance measures and determinants of Sudanese Islamic banks. To generate a comprehensive picture of such interrelationship, three models are built.
To achieve the study objectives a secondary source of information presented in the annual reports of twenty-seven Sudanese Islamic Banks, covering the period 2005-2013, was utilised.
Empirical evidence from the first model indicates that the management of Sudanese Islamic Banks lacks the capability to predict and avoid the risk associated with leverage.
With regards the profitability determinants, in relation to the Islamic banking industry, the model prove that PLS (Modarabah and Mosharakah) have a significant positive impact on profitability. This is due to the policy of the Central Bank of Sudan which encourage banks to use Mosharakah mode for financing all economic activities as well as giving each bank the right to determine the Modarabah’s percentage share in the profits.
Evidence from the second model shows that the presence of women in departmental managers’ positions has significantly negative impact on the profitability of banks. This due the restricted role of women in the Islamic culture which lead women to have career development barrier.
Meanwhile, due to coordination and communication problems resulting from enlarging the board size and higher cost of directors’ salaries and remunerations, the impact of the size of the board of director on the profitability of Sudanese banks is proved to be negative and significant.
Findings from the third model suggest that females’ departmental managers at Sudanese banks have a risk aversion attitude which leads to more performance stability of these banks.
Finally, the model proves that the proportion of Ph.D. holders in corporate governance positions enhance the managers’ understanding of decision making and risk taking techniques.