UTAR Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) Banking and Finance students Leong Wei Shan, Yap Sook Hui and FBF Dean Assoc Prof Dr Au Yong Hui Nee were awarded the Best Paper Award at the virtual 3rd International Conference on Economics (ICE 2021), held from 27 to 28 October 2021 via Cisco Webex. Moreover, Leong was also awarded the Best Presenter Award. They walked away with certificates of excellence.

Their paper titled, “The Intention to Use Islamic Banking Products and Perceived Impacts on Financial Inclusion: A Study to Measure Islamic Financial Literacy in Malaysia” aimed to provide insights and ideas about Islamic banking in the current world situation.

According to the team, “The steady growth of the Islamic financial sector in Malaysia has become apparent nowadays. The products of banking and financial institutions in Malaysia that are compliant with the Shariah Law have gradually increased. Furthermore, the Islamic savings institutions, the Pilgrims Management and Fund Board (Lembaga Tabung Haji) were implemented to develop a more comprehensive financial industry in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to examine the intention of using Islamic banking products among Malaysians by applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB).”

They added, “A total of 400 data were collected from Malaysians and were analysed by using deploying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Besides, by applying a two-steps approach, such as measurement model for outer loading analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted; the findings from this study revealed that the attitude, subjective, social norm and epistemic value as well as religiosity have a positive and significant relationship with the intention of using Islamic banking products. Moreover, Malaysians also perceived that the financial inclusion of Islamic banking had met their needs. Finally, this study helps banking and financial institutions in Malaysia to further understand the intention to use Islamic banking products among Malaysians.”

Feeling grateful for their winning, they elucidated, “To be honest, winning the Best Paper and Best Presenter Award was beyond our expectations. Initially, we participated in this conference to gain new knowledge and experience, as we feel this conference is a good platform for us to engage in economics topic discussion with a variety of attendees.” Taking this opportunity, Leong and Yap extended their sincere appreciation to their parents for their loving support. Moreover, they also expressed their gratefulness to Dr Au Yong for her encouragement and support towards their project. “This award is so special for us as it serves as a reminder for our hard work. We hope this achievement will motivate us to achieve more success in the future,” they added.

The team also highlighted, “For the significance of this recognition to our research, we do hope our paper will be able to help the finance industries to have a better understanding of the need and preferences of the consumers towards Islamic banking products. This research indicated the determinants that affect the consumers’ intention in choosing and using banking products. This research is not only specified for Islamic banking but also conventional banking. We hope that our research would give an idea for the financial industry to improve our country’s financial inclusion.”

Themed ‘Marching Forward Post Covid-19 for a Sustainable World Economy: Lessons, Issues and Challenges’, the 3rd International Conference on Economics (ICE 2021) organised by University Malaysia Sabah offered a platform for discussion of various topics in economics and it focused on economic issues and challenges in post-Covid-19 and the way forward. This international conference aimed to increase awareness and understanding of current issues related to economics. ICE 2021, in addition, provided the opportunity to build relationships among academicians, practitioners and policymakers from the private and public sectors across the international community.

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