A STUDY ON THE MALAYSIAN SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING GUIDELINES FOR ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The Sustainability reporting landscape has expanded to include Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), reflecting a growing emphasis on the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the business and management of IFIs. With the growing number of ESG-motivated stakeholders, sustainability reporting has become essential to inform the public about the IFIs' efforts and initiatives in ensuring their active involvement in this area. To further strengthen the need for sustainability reporting, the country's regulators, particularly the financial regulators, play a pivotal role in providing the industry with specific guidelines on what to report in sustainability reporting to ensure relevant stakeholders receive standardised reporting content. Nevertheless, this is yet to be the case in Malaysia, considering only general guidelines provided by the Malaysian financial regulator with the lack of specific standards provided for financial institutions, particularly for non-listed financial institutions. However, the current sustainability reporting guidelines should be appraised as they show Malaysian financial regulators' progressive efforts towards enhancing sustainability reporting in this country. Hence, this study was conducted to examine the well-accepted sustainability reporting standards and guidelines applicable for Malaysian IFIs, which were introduced at the global and national levels. The study adopted a descriptive analysis approach by perusing the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) standard and a few Malaysian guidelines for sustainability reporting applicable to financial institutions.