Despite the CMA recently celebrating the UK’s six largest banks fully implementing their open banking standards, there is still a long way to go before consumers are fully confident in handing over their financial data.
Five years on from PSD2, and the official start of open banking, and new research from NTT DATA UK&I has revealed a severe lack of trust among British consumers for open banking initiatives.
The research, on a representative sample of 1,000 UK respondents, found that the vast majority (84 per cent) stated that they didn’t trust that open banking was safe. Third-party providers are playing a large role in this lack of trust, with consumers cautious about how their data is used by these providers. The findings show:
• Almost three quarters (72 per cent) of consumers believe that open banking does not benefit the consumer most.
• 50 per cent of consumers believe that third-party financial providers benefit most from open banking.
• Moreover, many consumers do not trust third parties, with 10 per cent of consumers believing that open banking allows third parties to access their financial data without consent.
Whilst banks and third-party providers would certainly argue that open banking can make banking both easier and more secure for consumers, this research reveals that this attitude is not matched by the public. Just 7 per cent of respondents thought that open banking makes finance more secure, which indicates that there is a lot of work to be done to convince the remaining majority of consumers that it’s safe to share their financial data with third parties.
Andy Nelson, Head of Banking and Financial Markets at NTT DATA UK&I commented on the research insights: “Open Banking is undoubtedly a fantastic initiative. However, as our research shows, consumers are still not embracing open banking because they don’t fully trust it. As an industry, we need to work together to provide the necessary education to earn consumers’ trust.”