Are the customers of participation banks noise traders? The case of Turkey

The participation banks, which are founded on the base of Profit and Loss Sharing system, are important for behavioral finance. As a matter of fact, these institutions manage the behaviours which are directed by the beliefs. Besides it is estimated that the investors of participation banks are noise traders and do not act rationally for their investments. Because the financial instruments are not widespread among these investors and as a result, they are expected to have limited knowledge about the financial markets. The profile of the customers of the participation banks are elaborated with this study. The rationality of the participation banks are measured by using semi-structured interviews with Likert scale. The results are compared to the other commercial bank customers and it is seen that the participation bank customers are less rational than the other commercial bank customers. The statistical analyses have shown that there is positive correlation between income and rationality. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.