Participation (Islamic) banks and commercial bank customers preferences: A research on Turkey

After the oil crisis and the sharp rise in the oil prices in 1970's, oil-rich Islamic countries felt a need to invest their funds into the banking systems. As the concept of interest is unlawful in Islam, the capitals of Muslim households remained idle. As a result, participation banking sector was born and developed rapidly with a widespread recognition. This study aims to explore the potensial reasons behind the customers' preference of participation banking services and tries to identify the level of knowledge about the products and services of participation banking. The study also investigates the differences in terms of levels of religious orientation and financial literacy scares between the customers of participation and commercial banking services. A logistic model is derived from the variables (religious orientation, financial literacy, level of knowledge about participation banking, age, gender, marital status) in predicting the odds of using paticipation banking. The sample of this study is composed of 207 banking service customers (79 participation banking users and 128 commercial). The findings of this research reveal that "religious reasons", "these institutions being far away from the concept of interest" and "close attention of staff to customers" are ranked as the top among the reasons for the preference of choosing participation banking. Independent sample t-test indicate that while customers of participation and commercial banking differ significantly in religious orientation, they are similar in financial literacy. According to the logistics regression model, religious orientation, knowledge about participation banking and gender (being a male) are reported to have a significant positive effect while financial literacy has a negative effect on the use of participation banking. On the other hand, age and marital status have not been found to be significant in predicing the odds of using of participation banking.