Determinants of Malaysian banks' profitability: comparison between conventional banks and Islamic banks

This study endeavoured to examine the impact of internal profitability determinants on the profitability of Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia. This study also aimed to compare the findings to understand how differently the selected determinants affected the profitability of the two types of banks. This study adopted quantitative research methodology and used Pearson's correlation matrix and random effect regression model estimation to evaluate and understand the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. This study used a comprehensive sample size covering all forty-two enlisted banks (twenty-six conventional and sixteen Islamic banks) in Malaysia for the period year 2014 to year 2018. The study used return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as the proxy of banks profitability, and six internal determinants: capital adequacy ratio, assets quality, securities to assets, deposits, bank size and operating efficiency were selected to test their impact on the profitability of the Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia. The finding showed that assets quality, operational efficacy and securities to assets had significant impact on the return on assets of Islamic banks, while assets quality, bank size, capital adequacy and deposits found to have significant impact on the return on asset of conventional banks in Malaysia. Bank size and capital adequacy were found to have significant impact on the return on equity of both Islamic and conventional banks. The study further revealed that except assets quality, all other selected internal variables have significant different impact on the profitability of the Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia.