Examining the Obstacles to the Development of Participation Insurance in the Insurance Sector in Türkiye Using the Analytical Hierarchy Method

The basic financial requirements that exist in traditional financial markets are also valid for individuals who cannot invest their savings in these markets due to interest sensitivity. In order to meet the needs of these individuals, many interest-free financial products have been developed as an alternative to traditional financial instruments. In this context, the participation insurance system, which is an insurance type that is free of elements such as interest, uncertainty and gambling, has been developed as an alternative to traditional insurance transactions implemented with the aim of reducing the risks that savers may encounter. Developments such as the increasing interest in Islamic finance in the world, the steps taken to establish the legal infrastructure of participation insurance, and the increase in the number of participation insurance companies have increased the share and importance of participation insurance in the insurance sector. In Türkiye, a model containing more concise criteria has been developed by making legal regulations within the scope of international and domestic practices. Within the scope of this study, which was carried out with the aim of evaluating the gains obtained in this process, determining the obstacles to the development of participation insurance and ranking these obstacles according to their degree of importance, data was collected from experts in the field of participation insurance with a semi-structured interview form between 01-31 October 2023. The obtained data were analyzed with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. According to the analysis results, it has been determined that the most important factor preventing the development of the participation insurance system in Türkiye is "lack of recognition of participation insurance companies and their products" and the least important factor is "lack of microtacaful practices". It is thought that these results will help to determine more effectively the scope and content of the steps that need to be taken to develop participation insurance in Türkiye.