Customer awareness and current usage of Islamic retail banking products and services in Malaysia

This study aims to examine the customer awareness and the usage of Islamic retail banking products and services among the urban and rural banking customers of Malaysia. The market share of Islamic retail banking remains low despite being in operation for the fast 28 years. Therefore, a comparative analysis on consumer awareness and the current usage of Islamic retail banking between urban and rural banking customers was conducted to gain more compelling insight about Malaysian banking customers’ awareness on Islamic retail banking products and services. Results revealed that there is a significant difference between the urban and rural customers in terms of awareness and usage of Islamic retail banking. Thus, the findings of this study would be a valuable guideline to the banking sector to devise appropriate promotional strategies to popularize Islamic retail banking products and services among the banking customers of Malaysia.