Customers’ Attitudes toward Islamic Banking: In the Case of Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to survey the viewpoints of the customers to review the attitudes, perceptions towards- and knowledge of Islamic banking products and services. This paper presents primary data collected by questionnaires involving a sample of 96 respondents. An exploratory factor analysis is employed to examine the respondents’ perceptions towards various objectives and the current practice by the Islamic banks of Bangladesh. It was found that although religious conviction is a key factor in the use of Islamic banks products and services, a large portion of Muslim people believes that there is no significant difference between the products and services offered by Islamic banks and that of Conventional banks. The implication that is derived from the empirical evidence of the paper is - “profit maximization” should not be the primary goal Islamic banks; rather they must aim at promoting Islamic norms and values to achieve the economic objectives as prescribed by “Shariah” (Islamic Law). This research is limited to some published journals, books and book chapters. Moreover, due to expense and accessibility, questionnaire survey has been conducted on a sample of only 96 respondents.

Keywords: Islamic Banking, Reserve Requirement, Mudarabah, Musharakah, Ijara, Shariah

JEL Classification: G20, G21