No abstract

The functioning of board committees in Nigerian banks has generated interests in recent times. Concerns have been raised on the effectiveness of these committees especially their roles in the promotion of stable banks. One of the committees which attracted both research and regulatory interests is the audit. The efficiency of audit committees in the Nigerian banking system has been questioned. This is a proposed framework aimed at studying the roles of audit committees in the Nigerian banking system especially the impact on bank stability. The framework is focused on the attributes of the committee which include the frequency of meetings, expertise, independence and the size. The study proposed that these attributes could influence the stability of the banking system. The key attributes of the audit committee and how they impact bank stability have been reviewed. It is shown in the review that the audit committee is a vital element in bank stability which demands that more attention should be paid to the behaviour of its characteristics in ensuring bank soundness. The outcome of the research is expected to impact policy formulation on the functioning of the audit committee and equally have implications on bank risk governance structure. It would also be relevant to other researchers undertaking studies relating to board committee functioning in banks, risk governance and bank stability. This study is unique in that previous studies on audit committee did not focus on its roles in banking system stability.

The banking industry in the area of Fertile Crescent Countries (FCC) was faced by instability in their political and economic conditions in the last decade, especially during the Arab spring revolutions. The current study investigates empirically the efficiency of banking sector in the troublous areas in developing countries such as FCC. The efficiency estimates of individual banks are evaluated by employing the multiple regression models. This paper examines the effect of a selected bank-specific factors, and unstable macroeconomic conditions on bank efficiency in a selected FCC banks for 10 -year's period [2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013][2014]. The unbalanced panel data used in this study is derived from Bank Scope data network. The empirical findings are almost consistent with the expected results. Bank deposits and bank size have influence on bank efficiency. Economic conditions found with no effect on efficiency. It was found that liquidity of a bank does not influence bank efficiency, but bank diversification is related with efficiency in FCC.

Abstract-Increasing trends in using debts as a mechanism to fill the gap between income and expenditures among Malaysian households motivates this study. This study provides a survey evidence on the indebtedness of Malaysian household, particularly in the types of loans which Malaysian households frequently involved in, whether the debts become a financial burden to the households and whether Malaysian households have any alternative source of income as a financial backup for their main income. The survey shows that most Malaysian households having debts in hire purchase loan, debt service ratio of less than 60% and most of them have no alternative source of income. The survey was done on households in three northern states of Malaysia.Index Terms-Debt, debt service ratio, household, Malaysia.

The high debts among Malaysia's households and the dual banking system in Malaysia motivates this study to investigate the characteristics of the household loan in the conventional and Islamic banking institutions. The loan characteristics are vital as it serves as 'red flags' of loan default in the banking institutions. As conventional banks and Islamic banks are under different banking concepts and principles; normally accompanied by different loan policy and strategies, this study provides insights on the loan characteristics of the banking institutions. Using the estimated logit model, the results give information on the exposure to risk of default of the banking institutions. The results may be useful in the formulation of the lending policies of the banking institutions.