diff --git a/spring-integration-amqp/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/inbound/AmqpInboundGateway.java b/spring-integration-amqp/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/inbound/AmqpInboundGateway.java
index 6f06dfd7fe..c0d522a7a3 100644
--- a/spring-integration-amqp/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/inbound/AmqpInboundGateway.java
+++ b/spring-integration-amqp/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/inbound/AmqpInboundGateway.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.springframework.amqp.core.MessageListener;
 import org.springframework.amqp.core.MessagePostProcessor;
 import org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.core.RabbitTemplate;
 import org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.listener.AbstractMessageListenerContainer;
+import org.springframework.amqp.support.converter.MessageConverter;
 import org.springframework.amqp.support.converter.SimpleMessageConverter;
 import org.springframework.integration.amqp.support.AmqpHeaderMapper;
 import org.springframework.integration.amqp.support.DefaultAmqpHeaderMapper;
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ public class AmqpInboundGateway extends MessagingGatewaySupport {
 
 	private final AbstractMessageListenerContainer messageListenerContainer;
 
-	private final SimpleMessageConverter messageConverter = new SimpleMessageConverter();
+	private volatile MessageConverter amqpMessageConverter = new SimpleMessageConverter();
 
 	private volatile AmqpHeaderMapper headerMapper = new DefaultAmqpHeaderMapper();
 
@@ -62,6 +63,12 @@ public class AmqpInboundGateway extends MessagingGatewaySupport {
 	}
 
 
+	public void setMessageConverter(MessageConverter messageConverter) {
+		Assert.notNull(messageConverter, "MessageConverter must not be null");
+		this.amqpMessageConverter = messageConverter;
+		this.amqpTemplate.setMessageConverter(messageConverter);
+	}
+
 	public void setHeaderMapper(AmqpHeaderMapper headerMapper) {
 		Assert.notNull(headerMapper, "headerMapper must not be null");
 		this.headerMapper = headerMapper;
@@ -71,7 +78,7 @@ public class AmqpInboundGateway extends MessagingGatewaySupport {
 	protected void onInit() throws Exception {
 		this.messageListenerContainer.setMessageListener(new MessageListener() {
 			public void onMessage(Message message) {
-				Object payload = messageConverter.fromMessage(message);
+				Object payload = amqpMessageConverter.fromMessage(message);
 				Map<String, ?> headers = headerMapper.toHeaders(message.getMessageProperties());
 				org.springframework.integration.Message<?> request =
 						MessageBuilder.withPayload(payload).copyHeaders(headers).build();
diff --git a/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests-context.xml b/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a8246faa01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xmlns:si-amqp="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/amqp"
+	xmlns:int="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
+	xmlns:rabbit="http://www.springframework.org/schema/rabbit"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/amqp http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/amqp/spring-integration-amqp.xsd
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration.xsd
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/rabbit http://www.springframework.org/schema/rabbit/spring-rabbit.xsd
+		http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
+
+	<int:channel id="requests"/>
+
+	<si-amqp:inbound-gateway id="gateway" request-channel="requests" queue-names="test"
+			connection-factory="rabbitConnectionFactory" message-converter="testConverter"/>
+
+	<bean id="rabbitConnectionFactory" class="org.mockito.Mockito" factory-method="mock">
+		<constructor-arg value="org.springframework.amqp.rabbit.connection.ConnectionFactory"/>
+	</bean>
+
+	<bean id="testConverter" class="org.springframework.integration.amqp.config.AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests$TestConverter"/>
+
+</beans>
diff --git a/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests.java b/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..40b31187fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-integration-amqp/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/amqp/config/AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2011 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.amqp.config;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertSame;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+
+import org.springframework.amqp.support.converter.MessageConverter;
+import org.springframework.amqp.support.converter.SimpleMessageConverter;
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
+import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
+import org.springframework.integration.test.util.TestUtils;
+import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
+import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ * @since 2.1
+ */
+@ContextConfiguration
+@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
+public class AmqpInboundGatewayParserTests {
+
+	@Autowired
+	private ApplicationContext context;
+
+	@Test
+	public void customMessageConverter() {
+		Object gateway = context.getBean("gateway");
+		MessageConverter gatewayConverter = TestUtils.getPropertyValue(gateway, "amqpMessageConverter", MessageConverter.class);
+		MessageConverter templateConverter = TestUtils.getPropertyValue(gateway, "amqpTemplate.messageConverter", MessageConverter.class);
+		TestConverter testConverter = context.getBean("testConverter", TestConverter.class);
+		assertSame(testConverter, gatewayConverter);
+		assertSame(testConverter, templateConverter);
+	}
+
+
+	private static class TestConverter extends SimpleMessageConverter {}
+
+}