The perception of Islamic Finance

The subprime crisis demonstrated the fragility of conventional finance, forcing countries to find an alternative capable of withstanding a possible crisis. Côte d’Ivoire, like all other countries, is stepping up its efforts to develop this industry through the financing of major development projects. However, Ivorian economic agents are not particularly enthusiastic about it. To address this issue, we conducted a survey of commercial banks in Côte d’Ivoire. The aim of this study is to analyze commercial banks’ perceptions of Islamic finance. A qualitative methodological approach was used to gather information from the branches of 16 commercial banks in Côte d’Ivoire. The results show that commercial bank professionals have little knowledge of the concept of Islamic finance. However, we encourage commercial banks and the government to become more involved and to pursue actions to develop Islamic finance with a view to increasing the rate of bancarization and combating poverty.