Specifics of Risk Management in Islamic Finance and Banking, with Emphasis on Bosnia and Herzegovina

The ever increasing globalization of financial institutions’ business activities and liberalization of capital markets inevitably lead to the increase in both diversity and intensity of the institutions’ types of risk. Risk management is of the essential importance to the institutions, especially banks, because of the fact that their risky activities are the source of creating wealth for their stockholders. In terms of Islamic banking, risk management is still not sufficiently developed. Certain specific qualities in risk management in Islamic banks emerge due to a special way in which they run the business. Nowadays, Islamic banks mainly use conventional products for risk management, adopting them to their business in accordance to the Shari’ah. Regarding the Islamic finance and banking in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is still based on the activities of the bank that, although being a “hybrid” Islamic bank, is the only Islamic bank on the territory of South-Eastern Europe. This paper surveys the specifics of its risk management.