OPEN BANKING: ARE CONSUMERS KEEPING AN OPEN MIND?

Last September, the European Union’s regulatory requirement for banks to open up their payment accounts via application programming interfaces (APIs) came into effect. Since then, open banking has taken centre stage within European retail banking and payments. In this blog, Elina Mattila, Executive Director at Mobey Forum, shares insight into how emerging consumer attitudes may impact open banking services in the coming months.

It has been over six months since the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) came into full effect and with it, required banks to allow third party providers to access payment initiation and account information. While the regulation was designed to facilitate open banking, the market demand was uncertain. Would we, as consumers, choose to embrace the new services enabled by open banking? And if so, under which conditions?

To understand consumer attitudes, Mobey Forum and Aite Group partnered on a pan-European study to determine the appetite for open banking services amongst 1000 consumers in Finland, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The study, launched in November 2019, revealed many important consumer trends and attitudes, including key priorities and potential barriers for adoption.

 

Consumer appetite for change

The consumer benefits of open banking are largely perceived to be compelling, yet this counts for little if the providers of those services are not deemed trustworthy. This is an observation reflected in the study, which highlighted consumer confidence in service providers as critical to open banking adoption. People want clear visibility of who is managing their finances, and the overwhelming majority (88%) would prefer their primary source of open banking services to be their main bank, as opposed to other banks or third-party providers (TPPs).

Consumers also indicated high levels of trust in their current bank of choice, reflected by 77% preferring to use a financial product comparison service offered by their main bank. By enabling customers to compare the pricing and conditions of a range of financial products on the market, they feel more comfortable that banks have their best interests at heart. This is a welcome trend, and one which should be celebrated in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. For the banking industry to have rebuilt trust levels in this way bodes well for consumer adoption of future innovations.

With a trusted provider, one third of consumers were then either ‘very interested’ or ‘extremely interested’ in integrating open banking services into their financial routine. This applied to specific use cases: account information services (32%), pay by bank (33%), purchase financing (25%), product comparison (35%) and identity check services (35%). Unsurprisingly, consumer willingness to adopt these services relies heavily on providers continuing to prove that they can be trustworthy stewards of personal data.

 

Consumer concerns

For those unwilling to adopt open banking, concerns largely focused on reservations around security and privacy. As open banking becomes more sophisticated, it will be interesting to analyse the nuances around how consumers engage with third parties. Established brands are perhaps more likely to be trusted by consumers than lesser-known online retailers. For this reason, consumers may hesitate to engage newer companies than brands they are already familiar with. In an industry as varied as finance, this creates additional intrigue in the ongoing battle for market share between the newer ‘challenger’ banks and the older, more established European banks.

Consumers might, however, be willing to deprioritise trust and, instead, favour convenience and usability. When questioned over their willingness to adopt a new payment method, for example, 91% of respondents indicated that they could be tempted to switch either by financial incentives or the promise of greater convenience.

 

The path forward

While open banking is still in the relatively early stages of development, it has made significant progress in a very short period of time. Not only is it allowing consumers to share financial data with authorised providers as they wish, but it is set to spark more competition and innovation within the market.

From a business perspective, open banking is expected to create lucrative new revenue streams, particularly for companies which are able to innovate quickly and react to consumer demand. It is prompting consumers to reconsider how they manage their finances and – most excitingly – it’s not even close to reaching its full potential. It should bring a whole new era of service partnerships between banks and TPPs, which will enable a new generation of innovative financial services.

For the industry to truly fulfil its potential, it is vital that stakeholders are able to explore new business models, innovations and changing customer expectations for open banking in a commercially neutral environment. Mobey Forum’s open banking expert group provides exactly this, and we look forward to supporting our members as they shape the future of digital financial services.

 

Where to find out more

The opportunity for open banking is explored in more detail in a report by Mobey Forum and Aite Group, entitled Open Banking: Open Minds? Consumer Appetites for New Banking Services. It provides banks and other financial services stakeholders with a market view on consumer appetites toward new open banking services and explores the possible roadblocks to consumer adoption. It is also discussed in a podcast featuring key representatives from Interac, Erste Group Bank and Strands Finance.

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