The Effect of Consumer Interest on Islamic Bank Deposits: An Analysis Using Google Trends

Depositors' funds are the important accounts in the liabilities side of the Islamic bank's balance sheet as they are the primary funding source for the sustainability of Islamic banks operations. Previous studies use several variables to estimate the determinants of depositors' funds but none yet to describe the relationship between the individuals' interest and depositors' funds of Islamic banking. We use the Google Search Volume Index of two popular Islamic banking keywords “Syariah” and “Internet banking” on Google Trends to estimates the relationship between individuals' interest in the Islamic bank and Islamic bank deposits. Our results of the provincial-level panel data in Indonesia reveal that the keyword “Syariah” has the most significant effect on the Islamic bank deposits. This finding shows that Google Trends empowers the estimation of an economic leading indicator that is hard to quantify when examining various Islamic bank deposits' determinants.