Impact of the Financial Crisis on Profitability of the Islamic Banks vs Conventional Banks (with an Emphasis on 2008 Financial Crisis)

This study intends to investigate the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the profitability of Islamic and conventional banks. For this purpose the data for the115 banks were selected from Bank Scope database for the countries that the both types of banks were available.Then the Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis on performance (measured by bank Profitability) of the Islamic and Conventional Banks were compared. The explanatory variables are divided into two groups, bank specific measures, i.e. investment portfolio to total assets, bank deposits to total deposits, and leverages, and country specific measure (GDP per capita growth). The results showed that the financial crisis had a negative impact on profitability of both Islamic and conventional banks. Nevertheless, during 2008 financial crisis, the Islamic banks compare to conventional bank reveal less volatility in profitability.