Conformity Level of AAOIFI Accounting Standards by Six Islamic Banks of Bangladesh

Abstract

In response to this global rise in Islamic financial organism and banking, the need for setting up a common standard for the accounting function in Islamic Banks, became an unuttered need. Addressing this need, in the year 1991, the global institute for setting accounting standards for Islamic financial institutes, Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has been established in Bahrain. This study tries to find out the conformity level of the Islamic Banks in Bangladesh with these standards. This study analyses the annual reports of six Islamic banks from Bangladesh of the year 2012. The Reports are collected from the Banks’ website sources. It is found that these six banks conform with the AAOIFI standards by 53.79% on average in financial statements. A 2.79 standard deviation in case of total conformity refers to the low level of difference among these banks in case of disclosure. This study suggests that it is highly of importance for the banks to increase the level of conformity of the AAOIFI standards to ensure the stakeholders about their sincerity and determination to comply with Islamic Shari’ah. Analysis of AAOFI standard compliance is relatively new in Bangladesh. This research study may provide some new insights into the existing Islamic literature.

Keywords: Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, AAOIFI Standards.