Brits wary of new banking tech, despite high demand

Brits expect their banks to deliver the latest technology to them but are less likely to rush to use it, suggests a survey from ING.

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Brits wary of new banking tech, despite high demand

Editorial

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The Dutch bank, which quizzed nearly 15,000 people across 14 countries, says that more than two-thirds of British respondents expect their provider to be offering the latest technology.

Yet, for instance, 63% have never used fingerprint or voice recognition to log into their bank's app and nearly a third think that their lender is over-ambitious in introducing new services on different devices, saying they do not need or want more ways to interact.

For those who are using devices such as phones and tablets to manage their money, many agree they are keeping a closer track of their finances, with 67% viewing their account balance more frequently and 32% taking less risk with their funds.

ING suggests the conflicting views on expectation vs adoption may be due, in part, to a lack of trust in technology - only half of Brits rate facial recognition as a secure tool. Meanwhile, 62% aren’t comfortable with a computer programme making investment decisions on their behalf and 41% say no to receiving recommended improvements to their spending habits from robo-advisers.

In fact, 70% say they maintain the use of their local bank branch, in most cases in addition to digital channels.

Finally, Open Banking and PSD2 are still not well known or understood. Just over half of Brits are not aware that in some countries, providing consent is given, financial providers can access information held by other companies. Similarly, 64% say they would not be happy to use this and only 23% say it would be useful.

Jessica Exton, behavioural scientist, ING, says: "Consumers indicate that they want banks and other financial institutions to stay in the lead by developing new ways to help them manage their money despite any reluctance to accept them immediately."

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Comments: (2)

A Finextra member 

Interesting to see the lack of uptake around authentication solutions such as facial, voice, or fingerprint recognition. An iluminating statistic would be how many trust those methods over a simple password, or password and security question. 

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

I'm not a Brit, nor do I live in UK now, but this survey echoes my thoughts on Open Banking (no compelling need) and behavior on passwords.

Yes, passwords on mobile devices are a big pain. No, biometric alternatives are not a solution. I've tried fingerprint on my smartphone and disabled it. I'm never sure when it will work and when it will not. Unlike password - it works almost always if I've entered the correct password and fails almost always if I've entered the wrong password. Non-deterministic methods like biometrics deliver uncertain results and I don't find them too comfortable for crucial things like accessing a financial app. Besides, they're quite sensitive to hardware quality, environment, etc.

That said, copying the same logon screen from desktop web to mobile app is not the solution either. Entering userid, password etc on mobile virtual keyboard is a major pain. I immediately delete any mobile app which does that. Most recent example is my stock trading app ICICIdirect. I've been using its desktop web version for nearly 20 years but I just couldn't stand the friction of navigating the same logon screen on the mobile app. I deleted it within a couple of days.

Personally, I think a 4 or 6 digit PIN for logon on mobile app strikes the right balance between security and UX (even though it does introduce another item to remember) e.g. HDFC Bank PayZapp. For a vast majority of people, though, the tradeoff seems to lie in no form of gating whatever. They never logout of mobile app so that they can order food, taxi and make payments without password, fingerprint or any other form of authentication, as I highlighted in Why Do People Obsess Over Security And Then Make Payments Without A Password?

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