Article: Governance of FinTech Innovations in Islamic banking: the role and challenges of Sharia supervisory boards in the GCC Journal: International Journal of Economics and Business Research (IJEBR) 2025 Vol.29 No.19 pp.20 - 37 Abstract: Our study examines how the timing of Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) involvement, SSB members' digital literacy, and SSB's effectiveness may influence the quality of SSB's FinTech governance. Sharia governance theory (SGT), resource-based view theory (RBV), and institutional theory (IT) grounded the study's theoretical framework. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 80 experts in GCC. The result shows that early SSB involvement does not significantly affect governance effectiveness (r = -0.07, p = 0.55). It also shows that 'digital literacy and multidisciplinary expertise have a positive effect on the SSB's governance effectiveness' (r = 0.21, p ≈ 0.06). A significant negative relationship between perceived effectiveness and support for a unified GCC-level SSB (B = -0.684, p = 0.041) indicates that institutional weaknesses heighten demand for regional harmonisation. The study provides significant contribution to literature as the first region-wide empirical evidence linking SSB human capital to FinTech governance. Implications include increasing the diversity of SSB members' areas of expertise and providing members with better digital literacy. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Governance of FinTech Innovations in Islamic banking: the role and challenges of Sharia supervisory boards in the GCC

Authors: Abdelrhman Meero

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Kingdom University, Building 287, Road 3903, Block 939, Riffa, P.O. Box 40434, Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract: Our study examines how the timing of Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) involvement, SSB members' digital literacy, and SSB's effectiveness may influence the quality of SSB's FinTech governance. Sharia governance theory (SGT), resource-based view theory (RBV), and institutional theory (IT) grounded the study's theoretical framework. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 80 experts in GCC. The result shows that early SSB involvement does not significantly affect governance effectiveness (r = -0.07, p = 0.55). It also shows that 'digital literacy and multidisciplinary expertise have a positive effect on the SSB's governance effectiveness' (r = 0.21, p ≈ 0.06). A significant negative relationship between perceived effectiveness and support for a unified GCC-level SSB (B = -0.684, p = 0.041) indicates that institutional weaknesses heighten demand for regional harmonisation. The study provides significant contribution to literature as the first region-wide empirical evidence linking SSB human capital to FinTech governance. Implications include increasing the diversity of SSB members' areas of expertise and providing members with better digital literacy.

Keywords: Islamic FinTech; Sharia governance; Sharia supervisory boards; SSB; digital literacy; resource-based view theory; RBV; institutional theory; GCC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2025.150976

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2025 Vol.29 No.19, pp.20 - 37

Received: 20 Jul 2025
Accepted: 11 Nov 2025
Published online: 06 Jan 2026 *

Title: Governance of FinTech Innovations in Islamic banking: the role and challenges of Sharia supervisory boards in the GCC

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