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Commercial banks play a pivotal role as a financial intermediary in mobilizing funds among the sectors such as private households, business firms, and the government. Investment activities, business expansion, and industrial development depend largely on the funds, without which a country’s economy will be stagnant and even worse the economy is going to be in catastrophe. Apparently, lending activity is the core business of commercial banks that contributes the largest income proportion to the banks. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the four specific internal factors influencing the commercial banks’ lending behaviour. Sampling from the year 2009 to 2018, this study evidences that the volume of deposit, level of liquidity and bank size significantly influences the lending behaviour of commercial banks in Malaysia after the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Specifically, the volume of deposit and non-performing loans negatively influence the banks’ lending behaviour whereas the level of liquidity and bank size pose positive impacts on lending behaviour. These findings are very beneficial to the commercial banks, the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM), depositors or shareholders as well as business firms in planning, formulating appropriate policies and ultimately making well-informed decisions in the future.

Uniqueness of finance industry in Malaysia is where the industry operated parallels between conventional practice and Islamic practice. This also involved the Insurance industry in Malaysia. In Malaysia, insurance companies operates in 2 types, either by conventional or Islamic insurance, which also known as Takaful. Those two types of companies is almost similar, but in terms of operational and investment level, the Islamic insurance must be in tune with the Shariah principles. The policyholders, investors and regulators are interested in the performance of this industry. By focusing for the Islamic insurance industry, this study aims to investigate the investment performance of Islamic insurance industry in Malaysia. Eight independent variables had been selected comprises of company-specific factor and macro factors in this study. The period of this study was between years 2011 until 2020, a ten years study. Panel regression was employed on five selected Islamic insurance (Takaful) operators in Malaysia. The result reveals size (CS), liquidity (LIQ) and equity return (EQUIR) are significant in relation with the investment performance of Islamic insurance company in Malaysia.

Gold is one of the world-leading commodities, which is sought after as jewellery as well as an investment. Despite gold advantage as a reliable store of value, its price has been as fluctuating as other commodities or assets such as crude oil and stock. Therefore, investors should be aware that gold is not totally resistant to market turmoil and economic crisis. Gold could be as vulnerable as other traditional investment vehicles. Hence, this paper focuses on investigating the macroeconomic variables affecting gold prices in Malaysia using monthly data from 2014 to 2018. This study uses Pearson Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression tests to determine significant relationships and effects between the independent variables, namely interest rates, inflation rates, crude oil price, and exchange rates with the dependent variable, namely gold price. The findings show that the interest rate has a significant negative effect on gold price while inflation rate, crude oil price, and exchange rate have a significant positive effect on gold price in Malaysia, respectively. The results suggest valuable information and insight to policymakers, researchers, and investors in decision making.

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