A Survey of “Knowledge, Attitudes & Practices” of Islamic Banking Clients: An Evidence from FATA and PATA, Pakistan

Islamic banking & Finance and conventional banking are described as having the "same purpose but the essence and operations of Islamic banking are in accordance with Shariah law and have same "basic objectives" as other business and financial entities, i.e. "maximization of shareholder wealth". The speedy development of an Islamic banking system may improve financial insertion by providing an alternative to faith sensitive Muslims who are willingly excluded themselves from the system of conventional finance due to the nature of interest based. In Pakistan, the Islamic banking system eroding the growth of conventional banking so it’s worthy to explore the effect of religious belief the occurrence of a financial exclusion. The target population is from FATA and PATA maintain accounts at Islamic banks and conventional banks and a sample size of one hundred and fifty customers were picked up. The methodology focuses on the KAP Model (knowledge, attitude, practices), which indicates if attitude influences the association among “knowledge and practice” of an “Islamic banking”. Looking into KAP Analysis survey, through study result we find out that knowledge about Islamic banking and practices of Islamic banking are closely related. People having information about Islamic Banking and Products are more inclined towards Islamic Banking and people who don’t have much information are less interested in Islamic banking and Islamic products. KAP survey suggested that customers of conventional and Islamic banks are driven by the same motivating factors that have impact on their attitude. However, there have some likable factors that could be valued by “Islamic bank account holders only such as “variety of products & services, reliability, confidence in bank’s management, reputation and most important compliance with the Shariah rules in finance & investment.”. Low-cost services are some factors result in non-Muslims prefer Islamic Banking over the conventional banking.