Takaful Business

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANAGEMENT (ICM 2011) PROCEEDING

CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS ON TAKAFUL BUSINESS IN BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

Mohamed Sharif Bashir Faculty of Business and Management Science Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei msharief@hotmail.com Nor Hafizah Hj Mail Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei Muhd Jamil Abas bin Abd’Ali Legal Advisor at Abrahams Davidson & Co., Brunei

Abstract

Takaful (Islamic insurance) industry is a developing rapidly in Brunei Darussalam since it was launched in the early 1990s. It has emerged as an important component of the Islamic financial system in the country on competitive basis with conventional insurance. A clear understanding of consumer requirements is an essential to assist the provider of takaful in Brunei to be proactive in offering an Islamic financial service with reliable information. The purpose of this paper is to examine the consumer perceptions on takaful business in Brunei Darussalam It focuses on selected takaful products in order to investigate consumer perceptions. Specifically, some factors will be investigated such as product knowledge, awareness, advertising to measure the level of perception among takaful customers in Brunei. The paper provides an overview on Takaful business in Brunei. A survey questionnaire has been conducted to collect relevant and recent data on consumer perceptions relating to their respective takaful companies. The findings show that the most common problem that encountered by the takaful policyholders is the claiming process. Some policy implications have been suggested for improving the takaful business in Brunei. Field of Research: Islamic finance, takaful, consumer perception, Brunei Darussalam, Islamic financial institutions.

1. Introduction

Customers have been considered as a vital part of the stakeholders of any company. Their perceptions are very important for the takaful (Islamic insurance) companies since they are the ones who participate in the...