A STUDY ON THE CUSTOMER'S ACCEPTANCE TOWARDS ISLAMIC BANKING PRODUCTS AMONG NON-MUSLIM IN DUAL BANKING SYSTEM

Islamic banking products (IBP) are offered not only to the Muslim community, but also to communities of other religions who are free to choose products depending on their convenience. According to a report, the percentage of non-Muslim communities choosing IBP in Malaysia has been steadily increasing and is expected to continue to increase in future. The Dual Banking System is one of the initiatives that has been created in conventional banks as an extra facility for the communities to engage with IBP easily without going to Islamic Banks. This paper aims to study the factors that drive non-Muslim customers to accept IBP. Specifically, this paper examines the relationship between four factors: knowledge, understanding, perception and the level of awareness among non-Muslim customers regarding their acceptance on IBP in the Dual Banking System. About 140 non-Muslim IBP customers of the Dual Banking System around Changlun, Jitra and Alor Setar were selected based on convenience and were randomly picked as respondents of this study. Some data were also collected through interviews with the bank personnel and the bank's customers besides the self-administered questionnaire survey. Employing the SPSS approach, the hypotheses of the study were tested. The findings showed that there are significance relationships between customer's knowledge, understanding, positive perception, and the level of awareness perceived among non-Muslim customers and their acceptance of IBP.