Islamic Financial Literacy and Its Determinants: A Field Study on Turkey

Abstract

With the increasing interest in Islamic finance and banking in recent years, the issue of Islamic financial literacy has become very important. With the development and increase of Islamic financial products, it is possible to make the right choice and make right decisions about Islamic financial products by mastering Islamic financial literacy. The purpose of the current study is to determine the Islamic financial literacy level of people living in Turkey and to identify the factors affecting their level of Islamic financial literacy. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 479 people in Turkey. The questionnaire consists of 47 items gathered under four sub-dimensions called “General Islamic Finance”, “Islamic Products”, “Islamic Financial Calculation” and “Islamic Financial Institutions and Activities”. In the current study, t-test, ANOVA and post-hoc tukey test were used. As a result of the analyses, the Islamic financial literacy level of the participants was found to be low. Moreover, the variables such as gender, age, profession, marital status, being a customer of a Islamic bank were found to have effects on the level of Islamic financial literacy.