Exploring the impediments faced by the banking customers to adopt Islamic banking services in Pakistan

Abstract EN

Islamic banking facilitates Muslims to comply with their religious obligations while fulfilling their banking needs.

Surprisingly, adoption of Islamic banking services remains low compared to conventional banking in various Muslim countries.

The objective of this qualitative study is to explore why conventional banking customers dont adopt Islamic banking services in Pakistan.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with fifty customers of conventional banks.

The findings suggest that conventional banking customers are hesitant to adopt Islamic banking services in Pakistan owing to their lack of knowledge about Islamic banks, their liking conventional banks because they consider current Islamic banking not really Islamic, poor service delivery at Islamic bank branches, geographical barriers and some social reasons.

The social reasons preventing adoption of Islamic banking services include friends and familys influence to open a conventional bank account, unacceptability of Islamic bank account in ones social circle, and employers transferring salaries in conventional banks.

Based on this research, we propose policy implications to Islamic banks management for capturing the conventional banks customers in Pakistan and providing better services really in line with the Islamic principles.

Finally, limitations of this study and future research directions are discussed.