Customers’ Satisfaction of Islamic Banking and Conventional Banking in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study

Being a Muslim majority country, the Shariah based Islamic banking system competing with conventional banking system has gained quite a lot of popularity among the banking stakeholders. Irrespective of some significant differences between the two systems, both the banking systems have considerable customer bases. This study tried to compare the satisfaction levels of customers of Islamic and conventional banking taking 41 variables in seven distinct areas of customer sensitivity. The study clearly noted that the satisfaction level of the Islamic bank customers significantly higher than the conventional bank customers in any of these areas. The Islamic bank customers found to be more satisfied with the variables maintenance of confidentiality by the bank, confidence in the bank's management, behavior of employees, provision of Islamic products and services, compliance with Islamic Shariah, convenience of branch locations, convenience of working hours, access to current banking related information, cleanliness of the banking environment, and overall interior comfort of branches. For conventional banking, the most satisfied variables are maintenance of confidentiality by the bank, confidence in the bank's management, access to current banking related information, convenience of branch locations, number of branches, cleanliness of the banking environment, facilities of the bank, use of technology, and overall interior comfort of branches, risk of depositing money in the bank.