Factors affecting the intention to use Islamic personal financing

Looking into the situation in Malaysia, with a continued positive economic growth, the loan segment also has great potential for growth. In terms of household debt, it is the highest among developing economic countries in the region. In connection with the personal loan by banks have fallen compared with non-banking financial institutions, thus, the researcher took the opportunity to attract the consumers choose an Islamic banking product by conducting this research. In view of this problem, the researcher interested to study the factors that most influence a consumers’ intention to use Islamic personal financing and explore the relation among UUM staffs in aspects of attitude, social influence, perceived behavioral control, religious obligation and religiosity. Hence, this study is important to ensure consistency in the practice of financing between banks and non-banks by selecting an Islamic personal financing offered by Islamic banks. The sample consisted of 308 Muslim respondents among employees of Universiti Utara Malaysia. All data are analyzed using software of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) by conducting statistical method namely, Independent Samples T-Test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression analysis to achieve the objectives of this research. A conceptual framework is built based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by adding two new external variables, namely religious obligation and religiosity to further explain the intention to use Islamic personal financing. The results showed that all the variables are positively correlated with the intention to use Islamic personal financing at 99% of confidence level. In addition, the results also identified four factors which are attitude, perceived behavioral control, religious obligation and religiosity found significant in influencing the intention to use Islamic personal financing. Perceived behavioral control proved to be a strong predictor on the intention to use Islamic personal financing. However, social influence is found to be insignificant predictor. Perhaps, the findings of this research may give ideas and bring recommendations for banks concerns the adjustments and changes needed in order to increase the chances of customers opting an Islamic personal financing offered. Moreover, this will also enable the bank managers to tailor their marketing efforts in line with attracting more customers in the future. Other than that, this study also helps to improve the research of Islamic personal financing and thereby promote more debates in this are