I still wait for the forwarded newspaper report. But just heard a story from a colleague that an official of Bank Indonesia's sharia division recently appealed that the customers of sharia banks should remain 'loyal,' and not to move their funds to the conventional banks. This appeal was made after the interest rate (of the conventional banking system) rose, following the increase of inflation, making it more INTERESTing to save in the conventional banks.
'Iman' is one thing. But at the end, it's the incentives that matter, no...?
A.P., in Bank Muamalat, we categorize market as:1. Spiritual Market, 2. Rational Market. Our main target is the spiritual market. Because they act upon their believe, their Iman. And because they believe that the INTEREST from the Bank is RIBA, then they would not go back to the conventional bank. If a customer still thinks to move his money from Islamic Bank to Conventional Bank or vice versa because of the monetary advantage that he could reap, then he doesn't consider 'believe' at all. It will be a waste of energy for Islamic Banks to try to keep him from moving his money to Conventional Bank.
ReplyDeleteWhy, then, the official of Bank Indonesia's Sharia Department appeal that the customers of Islamic Banks should remain loyal?
From my perspective he just doesn't have a strong believe to his 'Iman'.
wassalaam,
hario