Social responsibility of Islamic banks in developing countries: empirical evidence from Egypt

ABSTRACT

This study explores Islamic banks’ role in Social Responsibility (SR) in developing countries by focusing on the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) as a case study. The paper provides a brief overview of the concept, dimensions, and areas of SR, nature of Islamic banks, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Islamic banks, also outlines how the Islamic banks support the social enterprises with some examples of such enterprises that supported by FIBE. The analysis shows that Islamic banks in general and FIBE, in particular, play an effective role in SR and enhance the development of social enterprises. The study concluded that FIBE has allocated huge funds for SR through participating in several social initiatives and activities, besides Qard-Hasan for needy citizens and its Zakat Fund.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic banks
• social responsibility
• social enterprises
• Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt

Acknowledgements

The authors like thank to the management of Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE) for publishing the annual reports in a detailed and comprehensive manner on the bank’s official website, which allows access to data at anytime and anywhere.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Abbreviations and Acronyms: Social Responsibility (SR); Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD); Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (FIBE).

2 All tables were constructed based on the data of the FIBE’s annual reports from 2015 to 2019.