Comparative Analysis on Shariah Governance in Malaysia: SGF 2010, IFSA 2013 and SGPD 2019

Abstract

The main focus of shariah governance for an organization is to ensure that it is comply with shariah laws and regulations. Under Islamic finance industry, shariah governance is being given attention due to rapid growth of this industry in the world. For Malaysia, the authority through Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) have taken a proactive role by introducing shariah governance guidelines including the Shariah Governance Framework (SGF) 2010, the Islamic Financial Services Act (IFSA) 2013 and the latest is the Shariah Governance Policy Document (SGPD) 2019. These shariah governance guidelines are supposed to support the development of shariah governance practices especially by Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Malaysia. However, there is limited to none study conducted to compare these guidelines. These shariah governance guidelines is necessary to be compared in order to find out whether these guidelines are complemented each other and to identify any differences among these guidelines. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare between these shariah governance guidelines. Based on the analysis, it has been found that SGPD 2019 is the most comprehensive covers on shariah governance as compared to IFSA 2013 and SGF 2010. However, these three guidelines still not become comprehensive enough, as there is still limited to none discussion on the definition and objectives of shariah governance itself.