The Effect of Investment in Sukuk on the Financial Performance of Islamic Banks

Despite having various advantages, Sukuk has complications, primarily due to its different structure compared to bonds and the shared risk between the lender and the borrower. Based on this, this study investigates the effect of investing in sukuk- as a way to finance the bank- on the financial performance of Islamic banks. For this purpose, the data of Islamic banks of 16 selected countries during the period 2019Q1 to 2022Q3 and the econometric method of panel data have been used. The research results showed that investing in sukuk in model 3 (with the dependent variable of return on equity), model 4 (with the dependent variable of capital adequacy), and model5 (with the dependent variable of the rate of return on assets) has a negative and significant effect on the financial performance of banks. Additionally, in model 2 (with the dependent variable of net profit margin), the impact of investing in sukuk on the financial performance of banks is positive and significant. Finally, investing in sukuk in model 1 (with the dependent variable of financing growth) does not have a significant effect on the financial performance of banks. Also, the bank size variable has a positive and significant effect in models 1 and 2, and a negative and significant effect in model 5 on bank performance variables, and it has no significant effect on banks' performance in other models. The inflation rate variable has a positive and significant effect on bank performance variables in models 3, 4, and 5 of the research, but has no significant effect on bank performance in other models. Similarly, the per capita income in models 2, 3 and 5 has a positive and significant effect on bank performance variables, while in other models it has no significant effect.