Judaism, Christianity and Islam all impose obligations and constraints upon the rightful use of wealth and earthly resources. All three of these religions have well-researched views on the acceptability of practices such as usury but the principles and practices of other, non-interest, financial instruments are less well known. This book examines each of these three major world faiths, considering their teachings, social precepts and economic frameworks, which are set out as a guide for the financial dealings and economic behaviour for their adherents. Religion and Finance explores the histories, denominational compositions and fundamental beliefs of each of the three religions and examines a host of key issues surrounding their relationship to finance. Consideration is given to the development of the generally disfavoured practices such as usury, and the various instruments of sales-based debt, partnerships and equity-based financial practices allowed by these religions are examined, alongside a discussion of their socio-economic teachings and traditions. This well-written, well-constructed, analysis of the financial thought of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with its insightful analysis of key financial instruments and economic practices, will be an invaluable book for anyone who is interested in, or studying, the three major Abrahamic religions and their financial practices and philosophies.

The pivotal objective of any financial system is to maintain a stable and efficient framework for the distribution and allocation of scarce monetary resources. This book attempts to examine the monetary stability process under the dual banking system. It selects Malaysia as a case where the government aims to run Islamic and conventional banking systems on a parallel basis. The book starts from investigating factors that have affected Islamic and conventional banks deposits held under various schemes. It then defines and develops new Islamic and conventional (M1 and M2) intermediate aggregates and compares their performances. This section also embraces the areas such as developing equations to calculate demand for money, the Central Bank of Malaysia's controllability over Islamic and conventional intermediate aggregates and lastly the effectiveness of both types of intermediate aggregates in achieving economic targets controlling inflation in short-term).