Purpose

The study explores the existing Shariah audit practice of Islamic banks (IBs) in Bangladesh aiming at providing suggestions for improvements on the detected shortfalls in the relevant areas.

Design/methodology/approach

This research applied a qualitative method, and data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews in Bangladesh. A total of 17 interviews were conducted for accomplishing the research objectives.

Findings

The study finds that there is no comprehensive Shariah audit manual in the current operation for IBs in Bangladesh, and as such, the requirements of their Shariah compliance remain a big question. Although the Shariah audit is conducted within IBs, and the Shariah audit officers or Shariah officers inspect necessary documents while conducting the Shariah audit, they only cover 10–20% of total investments and transactions. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the Shariah auditing tasks should broadly cover at least 80% of the investment portfolios, documents and financial contracts and activities.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this research are expected to significantly contribute to the regulatory authorities concerned in Bangladesh and beyond, which include the suggestions that IBs can adopt to strengthen their Shariah governance system. The study also pinpoints that in the current system, Shariah auditors' roles are somehow limited in examining and checking the investment sides with a minimal portion (10–20%), for which they are unable to perform their responsibilities in a befitting manner to provide assurance services and overall Shariah compliance of IBs activities.

Practical implications

This study explores the current Shariah audit systems and provides recommendations to improve the existing systems which will be beneficial for Islamic banks of Bangladesh.

Originality/value

To the researchers' knowledge, perhaps this is the first research of its kind which seeks to explore the current Shariah audit practice in Bangladesh qualitatively, and it provides some practical suggestions for making the necessary developments of the current audit process of IBs. In addition, there are no empirical studies in the entire Emerald insight publishers and Scopus database regarding Shariah audit practices. The study contributes to the agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories by exploring the Shariah audit of IBs.

中文翻译：

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孟加拉国伊斯兰银行的伊斯兰教法审计：目前的做法和前进的方向

目的

该研究探讨了孟加拉国伊斯兰银行（IB）现有的伊斯兰教法审计实践，旨在为相关领域发现的缺陷提供改进建议。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究采用定性方法，通过在孟加拉国进行半结构化访谈收集数据。为了完成研究目标，总共进行了 17 次访谈。

发现

研究发现，孟加拉国目前的中介机构运营中并没有全面的伊斯兰教法审计手册，因此，其伊斯兰教法合规要求仍然是一个大问题。尽管伊斯兰教法审计是在IB内部进行的，并且伊斯兰教法审计官或伊斯兰教法官员在进行伊斯兰教法审计时检查必要的文件，但它们只覆盖总投资和交易的10-20%。根据本研究的结果，建议伊斯兰教法审计任务应广泛涵盖至少 80% 的投资组合、文件以及财务合同和活动。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究的结果预计将为孟加拉国及其他地区的相关监管机构做出重大贡献，其中包括IB可以采取的加强其伊斯兰教法治理体系的建议。研究还指出，在现行制度下，伊斯兰教法审计师的作用在某种程度上仅限于对投资方进行最小比例（10-20%）的审查和检查，因此他们无法以适当的方式履行其职责，以提供保证服务以及IB活动的整体伊斯兰教法合规性。

实际影响

本研究探讨了当前的伊斯兰教法审计系统，并提供了改进现有系统的建议，这将有利于孟加拉国的伊斯兰银行。

原创性/价值

据研究人员所知，这也许是同类研究中第一个旨在定性探索孟加拉国当前伊斯兰教法审计实践的研究，并为当前国际投资机构审计流程的必要发展提供了一些实用建议。此外，整个 Emerald Insight 出版商和 Scopus 数据库中都没有关于伊斯兰教法审计实践的实证研究。该研究通过探索IB的伊斯兰教法审计，为机构、利益相关者和合法性理论做出了贡献。