غلامحسین اسدی

Financial instruments are one of the fundamental dimensions of financial markets that guarantee their efficiency and effectiveness of these markets. These instruments playe a main role in economy to direct money from saving sources to investment needs. These instruments provide possibility of financing companies from public and private sources and also are considered as investment instruments for cash savings in an economy that can provide a suitable return for investors. Today, various financial instruments have been developed that can meet different financial needs of corporations which can comply with investor tastes and preferences. Among these instruments, commercial paper is usually considered as a short-term financing instruments for working capital expenditures of companies. Banks and credit institutions are among the main entities which issue commercial papers for their liquidity needs. In spite of this, like other traditional financial instruments, commercial papers have been developed and structured in western markets and cannot be issued in Islamic markets due to Shariah (Islam) regulations and condition. But, Islamic contracts and regulations have the capability to develop this important financial instrument in an accepted framework of prescribed contracts in Islam jurisprudence (Fiqh). The present research with a comparative study, (Delphy method) explains the conceptual model of Islamic commercial papers for banks and credit institutions in the form of Murabaha Sukuk, in a way that these papers can be structured and issued in the Islamic markets by using opinions of the experts. Key words: Islamic finance, Commercial paper, Sukuk, Murabaha JEL Classification: G21, G23, G32

Drastic changes and turbulence in macro-economic factors have the greatest impact on banks target market attractiveness in Iran. It is assumed that conventional segmentation models at the corporate level are not efficient for banking system. This study aims to develop a new segmentation model at the industry level for banks of Iran. For this purpose, structures and variables at the industry level were identified and defined by reviewing the literature and with the help of bank experts in focus group sessions. Then, data of ISIC 3-digit factories with 50 and more employees were extracted from Iran Statistic Center and Tehran Stock Exchange databases during 2005-2013. We used Hierarchical Cluster analysis in each year and identified 4 study groups across 9 years. We found that identified groups are significantly different regarding industry size, deposit and loan market size, industry growth, deposit and loan market growth, profitability, investment risk, and transaction with other industries. Keywords: Macro-segmentation, Manufacturing Industries, Segmentation based on industries, Hierarchical Clustering, Banking. JEL Classification: E44, G21, L60, M31, C67, C82