FAMILY TAKAFUL (ISLAMIC LIFE INSURANCE) IN BANGLADESH: OPERATIONAL DILEMMAS AND REMEDIAL APPROACHES

Family Takaful is one of the service sectors that are expected to continue to drive growth in the economy. Thus, the family Takaful market continues to play an important role in supporting economic and social development. However, in Malaysia, family Takaful market is still at a lower penetration level if we were to compare to other developed countries even though the Takaful industry continues to sustain strong performance amidst challenges in a competitive environment. Evidence has shown that the percentage of society covered by family Takaful contracts in Malaysia is still very low compared to conventional insurance. Therefore, the study aims to propose a conceptual framework for the determinants of family Takaful demand in Malaysia. From a review of the literature available in this particular area of interest, there are two categories of factors that are found to be the main determinants of family Takaful. These factors are the socio-demography and economic factors.

Bank Negara Malaysia reports revealed that the Takaful market performance was shown to have contributed significantly to the family Takaful business compared to the general Takaful business, which remained the primary income generator in Malaysia for the Takaful industry. Yet, family Takaful's market penetration rate is still relatively low and does not reach the potential market. It also confirmed that the range of family Takaful participants surrendered their certificates every year. This can be argued that the Takaful industry faces a challenge in maintaining its current family Takaful participants. It is critical for the Takaful industry to focus on participants’ retention by know-how loyalty tendencies. This research aims at providing more information and knowledge on how to manage their loyalty based on its antecedents. Hence the main purpose of this research is to examine the effect of trust, commitment, and satisfaction on participants’ loyalty in family Takaful. This research also aims to examine the mediating role of satisfaction which can help extend the current understanding of loyalty. Quantitative research was put in place to achieve the research objectives. Stratified random sampling and simple random sampling were selected in which the questionnaires were distributed to 400 samples of family Takaful participants in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The data collected were processed via appropriate computer software such as the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 (SPSS 22.0) and the AMOS program version 22 (AMOS 22.0). These findings contributed to the existing literature as a guide to better understand consumer behavior cycles, particularly in the context of Takaful industry.

The growing significance of takaful industry (Islamic insurance) in Malaysia is expected to foster sustainable economic growth in Malaysia. Further to this, Malaysia is recorded to be the major player and one of the fastest takaful growth in Southeast Asia. As such, family takaful (Islamic life insurance) segment must be competitive and innovative to increase market penetration and compete with their conventional counterparts. This paper aims to propose a simple yet comprehensive conceptual model by identifying the main determinants that drive family takaful demand in Malaysia. An extensive review of literature available has been carried out to achieve the purpose. Several critical factors namely, agency system (al-wakalah), reputation of takaful operators, products and services, marketing and advertising of takaful products, are found to be the main determinants for family takaful demand.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the driving forces that influence family Takaful demand in Malaysia. The paper examines various identified and available economics and socio‐demographic variables.Design/methodology/approachUsing ordinary least square (OLS) and generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques, the paper investigates the significance of the identified economic and socio‐demographic factors in determining the consumption of family Takaful. The paper first examines a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio‐demographic factors. Following Anderson and Nevin, Haberman, Lenten and Rulli and Josa the paper further separates all models into linear and log‐linear demand functions.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that income, Islamic banking development, education, dependency ratio and Muslim population factors are positively related to Takaful demand. On the other hand, inflation, real interest rate, financial development and life expectancy appear to be the significant factors that adversely influence the total family Takaful consumption.Research limitations/implicationsThe major limitation of this paper is the small sample size. Therefore, future studies may expand the variables omitted in this study due to unavailability of data, which may be influential in explaining the family Takaful demand in Malaysia. Possible influential variables may include government social security expenditure, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry. Research should also be conducted on the impact of the legal system and government policies on the demand for family Takaful in the country. Finally, the study focuses solely on the determinants of demand for family Takaful. Nevertheless, the supply‐side of the equation should not be neglected and should be incorporated in future studies.Originality/valueIt is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the Malaysian market and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. In this regard, this study contributes in filling the gaps in the scope and coverage of studies in similar area. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the driving forces (economics and socio-demographic) that influence family Takaful demand in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, using a sample of 15 countries from the MENA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use multivariate analysis, bootstrapping and generalised method of moments techniques. They first examine a full model that combines all variables; second, a model that controls for product market factors; and finally, a model that controls for socio-demographic factors. They further separate all models into linear and log-linear demand functions.FindingsThe authors demonstrate that the relationship between the demand for family Takaful in MENA and Islamic banking deposits, education, dependency rate, female life expectancy and Muslim population is significantly positive. On the other hand, the significant factors that are inversely related to the demand for family Takaful in MENA are inflation, financial development and male life expectancy.Research limitation/implicationsThe crucial limitation of this study is the amount of data available in regards to the dependent variable, family Takaful contributions. Consequently, to improve the understanding in explaining the family Takaful demand in MENA, further research can take advantage of expanding the variables that were omitted in this research as a consequence of the unavailability of data. Some of the possible influential variables can include government social security expenditure, legal system and government policies, price of Takaful and level of competition within the Takaful and insurance industry.Originality/valueIt is obvious that there are very few studies that focus on the MENA market, and indeed, none of them gives attention to the factors that influence demand for family Takaful. While this study is expected to provide more understanding and awareness on the concept of Takaful and the factors that influence its demand, the authors hope that it would encourage more studies on various issues on the Takaful industry so as to help researchers to understand more aspects of this new emerging business.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and systemric review of global research on family takaful, identifying publication trends, leading contributors, influential works, and emerging thematic areas. It also seeks to highlight research gaps and propose future research directions.The study utilized a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 78 documents related to family takaful, indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases, covering the period from 2009 to 2025. Tools such as VOSviewer, Biblioshiny, Bibliometrix (R package), and Microsoft Excel were employed for data visualization and analysis. Descriptive and network analyses were conducted to map publication trends, author collaborations, thematic clusters citation patterns and shows the research gaps and future research directions.The results reveal a steady increase in family takaful research, with Malaysia dominating authorship, institutional affiliations, and publication outputs. Key research themes include consumer behavior, product modeling, Shariah compliance, and service quality. Influential studies highlight trust, awareness, and subjective norms as pivotal drivers of takaful adoption. However, research is predominantly region-specific (Malaysia and Pakistan), with limited cross-cultural validation, empirical field testing, and supply-side analyses. This study is the first to conduct a edicated bibliometric analysis and systemic review focused solely on family takaful literature, addressing a significant gap in existing takaful research which has largely been general in scope. By providing a comprehensive overview of the intellectual structure and evolution of family takaful studies, the paper offers valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers aiming to enhance the growth and innovation within the takaful industry. The analysis is constrained to documents indexed in Scopus and WOS, excluding grey literature and publications in non-English languages. The limited number of high-quality empirical studies restricts a deeper analysis of behavioral adoption factors. Future research should consider broader datasets, explore underrepresented regions, and integrate technological innovations and supply-side perspectives to advance the takaful literature.

PurposeThis study aims to find out the problems of family Takaful (Islamic Life Insurance) operations in Bangladesh and proposes strategies to overcome the problems.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data were collected through interviews with 32 respondents from two family Takaful operators in Dhaka, Bangladesh.FindingsThe study finds a number of problems of family Takaful which relate to the government, Takaful company and the Shariah board. Lack of governing guidelines for Takaful companies in Bangladesh is causing numerous operational problems of family Takaful. To overcome these obstacles, the government should propose separate Act for Takaful. This requires support from the stakeholders along with Islamic scholars in the country.Practical implicationsIt is anticipated that the findings and suggestions of the study will assist the policymakers in improving the situation of family Takaful companies particularly in Bangladesh.Social implicationsIf the proposed suggestions are implemented in Takaful companies, the problems facing Takaful will likely be solved and more people will take part in Takaful. This would contribute to developing the country economically, raise Islamic values and foster peace and harmony in the society.Originality/valueMainly, this study is based on the primary research that has been conducted in family Takaful companies in Bangladesh.

This paper focuses on the Stochastic cost Frontier Analysis (SFA) approach, in an attempt to measure the relationship between efficiency and organizational structure for Takaful and insurance operators in Malaysia's dual financial system. This study applied a flexible cost functional form i.e., Fourier Flexible Functional Form, for a sample consisting of 19 firms, chosen between 2002 and 2010, by employing the Battese and Coelli invariant efficiency model. The findings show that on average, there is a significant difference in cost efficiency between the Takaful industry and the insurance industry. It was found that Takaful has lower cost efficiency than conventional insurance, which shows that the organization form has an influence on efficiency. Overall, it was observed that the level of efficiency scores for both life insurance and family Takaful do not vary across time.

Takaful has originated as an idea for preserving the care of people from financial damage. It can be employed as a risk management device to alleviate the hazards of regular life and trade activities. Furthermore, it gives significance to society’s worldwide economic growth as a tool of assembling funds in the economy. Takaful supports organizations to decrease their monetary burden. Businesses can buy Takaful to claim casualties acquired due to the misfortunes of workers in the workplace. Takaful takes responsibility for the protection and welfare of workers. Takaful has numerous products such as Motor Takaful, Family Takaful, and so on. However, Takaful products’ innovation is prolonged, causing the Takaful industry to lag behind the insurance industry, especially in marketing and pricing. Thus, this research aims to explore Shari’ah advisers’ views towards the innovation of Takaful products in Malaysia. A mixture of convenient sampling and purposive sampling methods are employed for choosing the Shariah advisers as the interviewees. The data for the research is collected via interviews with 11 Shariah advisers. The findings of this research show that Shariah advisers believed that many potentials need to be explored. One way to discover the potential is through innovation. Among the Takaful industry segments that need to be improved are products, marketing, pricing, customer services, and distribution channels. Moreover, the lack of awareness among customers on Takaful gives rise to many problems. Nevertheless, Shariah advisers contributed many reasonable clarifications to the current condition, suggesting that several Takaful industry areas could be improved to become an innovative industry

This study investigates the key determinants influencing the adoption of family takaful among residents of Puncak Alam, Selangor. Despite the strategic design of family takaful to provide financial protection, particularly for low-income earners in the event of financial loss, its market penetration in Malaysia remains low. This raises important questions about the barriers to its widespread adoption, despite extensive promotional efforts by the takaful industry. The research aims to address these challenges by identifying and analyzing the factors that hinder the broader uptake of family takaful. A quantitative and descriptive research approach was adopted to gain a deeper understanding of the issue. Data collection was conducted using random sampling techniques, and the responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study involved a structured survey of 100 respondents from Puncak Alam, which examined the impact of three key variables - price, knowledge, and satisfaction - on the adoption of family takaful. The findings of this study underscore the significance of these three factors in shaping consumers' decision-making processes regarding family takaful. Price, as an indicator of affordability, knowledge about family takaful products, and the level of satisfaction with existing services, were all found to significantly influence adoption rates. By highlighting these critical determinants, the research provides valuable insights for policymakers, takaful operators, and financial service providers to refine their strategies and promote wider adoption of family takaful, ultimately enhancing financial security for the Malaysian population.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of the study on optimizing solvency margin in family Takaful and life insurance institutions in Malaysia.Method - The population of this study is family Takaful and life Insurance Institutions in Malaysia during the period 2010 - 2019. The selection of samples in this study uses the purposive sampling method and selected 11 family Takaful and 14 life Insurance Institutions. The data were analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis. Result - The results showed that for from 2010 to 2019, the family Takaful operators’ efficiencies are improving, whilst the life insurers have become less efficient even though their efficiency score is higher than the family Takaful operators. In terms of the optimum size (i.e., scale), the results are reversed which means that the family Takaful operators are still not at the optimum size but once they reach there, they could improve their efficiency substantially. However, for both family Takaful operators and life insurers, 2019 seems to dip their efficiency in terms of pure technical and also scale.Implication - The results of this research open a new way of measuring the efficiency of family takaful and life insurance not only in Malaysia but can be generalized to measure the efficiency level of family takaful and life insurance in general.Originality - This research is the first study that used the combination of inputs and outputs specifically for the family Takaful and life insurance institutions in Malaysia.

Takaful industry has experienced rapid growth and gained wider acceptance among Muslims and non-Muslims. The growth of takaful industry has contributed to economic development especially in the Islamic financial system. In general, this study discusses the perception of Muslim on family takaful scheme participation in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In particular, this study aims to identify the perception of Muslim on family takaful scheme participation, the sources that might influence the intention to participate into the scheme, the perception on the importance of Islamic element in purchasing insurance, and problems that might impede individual’s intention from participating in family takaful scheme. This study uses semi-structured interviews question to collect the data. Interview data are analyzed using thematic analysis. The result shows that Muslim perception and intention to participate in family takaful scheme is mixed. While most of the respondents agree that family takaful is a necessity, money was the main factor that impedes their intention from participating in the scheme. This study suggests the influence of media and takaful agent in enhancing Muslim awareness, knowledge and intention to participate in family takaful scheme.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the productivity level of family takaful in Malaysia and Indonesia from 2014 to 2019. Productivity can support corporate sustainability, which is one of the company’s goals. Design/methodology/approach The measurement of the productivity level in this study involved applying the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) method. The input variables used consisted of equity, total expenses and total investment. The output variables consisted of total profit and investment income. In addition, this research used the orientation of the output and intermediation. Findings Throughout the study period, the Indonesian family takaful had an average total factor productivity change (TFPCH) of about 0.945. In other words, it did not reach optimal productivity. It is more due to the low value of technological change (TECHCH). On the contrary, family takaful companies in Malaysia had called productivity, showing a TFPCH of about 1.041. Again, this is mainly due to an increase in TECHCH and efficiency change, but it is still low in pure technical efficiency change. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on factors that exist in internal takaful companies. Neither micro- nor macroeconomic variables that can affect productivity levels have been measured. In addition, this study only analyzed two countries out of the 11 countries in the Southeast Asian region. Practical implications Family takaful companies can use the productivity index as one of the bases of evaluation in managing their resources to enhance optimal output. Furthermore, the management of family takaful companies in Indonesia needs to focus more on technological innovation and delivery of services to increase productivity. Meanwhile, family takaful companies in Malaysia can maintain their technology usage and efficiency to operate productively. The government in both countries is expected to actively accelerate the growth of family takaful companies by producing regulatory products that strengthen the industry. Specifically, the government in Indonesia needs to make regulations that support technology improvement. Originality/value There is still not much research that examines family takaful’s productivity level using the MPI. The MPI is an appropriate tool to evaluate the productivity of family takaful companies. Thus, family takaful companies can improve their quality by assessing the productivity index value.

The aim of this paper is to review intention behaviour theories to identify relevant theoretical model for the intentions of adoption of family Takaful. In this paper different intention behaviour theories including Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Attitude-Social Influence-Efficacy Model (ASE), Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), and Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) have been discussed. Family Takaful companies face stiff competition from conventional life insurance companies and family Takaful companies have low market share around the globe as compared to conventional life insurance. This problem needs to be addressed and researched on and the question of what may drive individuals to adopt family Takaful needs to be addressed and explored. The significance of this paper stems from the fact that marketing strategy of any organization has a pivotal role in success of any brand. Family Takaful companies need to know and understand the factors which influence individual’s intention to purchase family Takaful. In this paper most appropriate theoretical model is proposed after discussing the relevant intention behaviour theories in order to develop understanding of factors relevant to adoption of family Takaful. This understanding will lead to devise effective marketing strategies, competitive advantage, and greater market share for family Takaful companies.

Family Takaful (Islamic life insurance)