Investigating bank-specific and macroeconomic factors affecting the liquidity position of Islamic banks in Pakistan

Today, not only the financial but also the non-financial attributes are considered vital for the financial health of the banks. To validate this argument, the current study investigates factors affecting the liquidity position of banks and examines its impact along with the moderation of the Sharia board on the liquidity of Islamic banks in Pakistan. Collecting panel data, this study applied a fixed-effect model on Pakistani Islamic banks for the post-financial crises period 2009-2020. Empirical findings revealed that total assets and profitability are positively and significantly linked to the liquidity position of Islamic banks. However, the deposits and capital adequacy ratios were found to have a negative influence on the Islamic banks' liquidity. Among the macroeconomic factors, none has established significant nexus with the liquidity of Islamic banks in Pakistan. Interestingly, the insignificant relationship between funding cost became significant with the moderating factor of Sharia board size. The study provides important insights for the shareholders, customers, investors, and policymakers of Islamic banks. The empirical findings offer practical guidance for the regulators of Islamic banks to strengthen their Sharia boards to manage the liquidity position by regulating the funding costs. The Islamic banks' liquidity position can also be managed by generating high profits, maintaining capital adequacy ratio, and increasing deposits. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that investigates the moderating role of Sharia governance in managing the liquidity of Islamic banks in Pakistan. This research offers a new and most important direction for future studies to investigate the role of non-financial attributes along with the financial indicators in evaluating the financial soundness of Islamic banks.