The Effect of Conventional Bank's Interest Rate & Islamic Bank's Profit Rate on Investment & Return: An Empirical Investigation in Bangladesh

Since depositors are motivated by returns, it is important for Islamic banks management to understand the extent that rates of return on deposits influence their customers' decision to deposit. The main objective of the study is to explore the degree of influence of conventional bank's interest rate on Islamic bank's profitability and vice-versa. It has been seen from 2005 to 2011 that the rate of interest declared on deposit by conventional banks has a negative impact on profitability of both types of banks in Bangladesh. Rate of profit declared on deposit by Islamic banks is positively related with their profit earned but negatively related with profit earned by conventional banks. We see that rate of interest declared on deposit by Conventional Banks is positively related with their deposit volume but negatively related with Islamic Bank's deposit. On the other hand, rate of profit declared on deposit by Islamic Banks is negatively related with deposit levels of both types of banks. The survey result shows that almost 85% of the respondents are choosing Islamic banks only from their religious point of view and more than 60% of the sampled Islamic bank customers are reluctant to leave the bank even if conventional banks offer better interest rates.