Paper Title
Risk Sharing vs. Risk Shifting: A Comparative Study of Islamic Banks

Abstract
This is the first study to classify Islamic Banks into three categories as Conservatives, Moderates, and Liberals. It uses a scorecard index to classify the study sample into the three categories. The study compares between the three categories of banks in terms of their usage of Islamic Contracts. Six fundamental Islamic contracts are used in this study which are Mush�rakah, Mud�rabah, Mur�baha, Salam, Ij�rah, Istisn�. Mush�rakah and Mud�rabah represent profit and loss sharing contracts (i.e., risk-sharing contracts) whereas Mur�baha, Salam, Ij�rah, and Istisn� represent risk-shifting contracts. The study covers the following countries: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, and UK. The results of this study reveal that there are differences between the three categories in the use of risk-sharing contracts and risk-shifting contracts. The result concludes that the majority of the sample rely on risk-shifting contracts. The study also highlights the underlying factors that could affect the usage of risk-sharing contracts.