Determinants driving Takaful and cooperative insurance financial performance in Saudi Arabia

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the effect of insurance specific characteristics, corporate governance and risk reporting attributes, Shari’ah board and inflation rate on the financial performance of Takaful and cooperative insurance industries. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a dynamic panel generalized method of moment’s system estimation, the author investigates determinants of financial performance as measured by the net premium written, earning ratio and profit margin. Findings - Company size, insurance penetration, risk reporting and board size significantly explain the financial performance of both types of insurance companies. The effect of Shari’ah board and capital intensity on the financial performance of Takaful insurance is overall positive. The non-executive directors may negatively affect the financial performance. Additionally, positive relationship was also found between inflation rate and financial performance of cooperative insurance. Research limitations/implications - The typical shortcomings of a content analysis-based research apply to the measurement of operational risk reporting variable. Some modifications need to be made if it were to be used for exploring the financial performance of other Islamic financial institutions. The structural model used in this paper can be used as a generic platform to develop a specific framework for other types of organizations. Practical implications - Some suggestions may be functional for Islamic insurance regulatory authorities to intensify the transparency, and for insurers to channel an additional source of investment funding toward economic sectors. Originality/value - The present study seeks to fill a demanding gap in the literature by providing new empirical evidence on the factors that influence the financial performance of the Islamic insurance sector. Moreover, the paper tries to distinguish and identify the determinants of the performance for Takaful and cooperative insurance companies operating in Saudi Arabia.