Research: digital banking adoption is expected to grow to around 70% in the future

By FintechNews staff

– N26 has launched its “2021 Global Digital Banking Index” – an analysis of surveys and research done with over 47,000 banking customers in 28 markets to explore consumers’ changing attitudes towards digital banking.

-Across the 28 countries surveyed, nearly 1 in 4 persons (23%, an estimated 450 million customers) already has a digital-only bank account. Almost half (46%) of the survey’s participants without an online account would be motivated to open one in order to access the simple and convenient user experience, clear and simple communication, competitive pricing, and user-friendly features that digital banks offer. The findings also suggest that the number of digital banking customers could grow to around 70% of the population across countries surveyed – potentially 1.4 billion people in all. 

-In this, trust remains an important factor to attract and retain customers. With the lack of face-to-face interaction in the online space, it is particularly important for digital banks to successfully infuse intimacy and humanity in their interactions with customers.  

-According to the study, the top three countries with the highest share of customers with a digital-only bank account are Saudi Arabia (54%), United Arab Emirates (51%), and Brazil (44%). The countries demonstrating the fastest growth in digital banking adoption in the last two years were Switzerland (82%), Brazil (73%) and Australia (58%). 

-Europe lags behind when it comes to the share of customers with digital-only bank accounts, e.g. France (20%), Spain (15%), Belgium (13%), Germany (10%), and the Netherlands (8%). However, these countries have also seen an immense increase in the digital banking population between 2018 and 2020, e.g. Switzerland (82%), Ireland (56%), the UK (55%), France (53%), Spain (44%) Germany (35%), Belgium (30%), and Italy (28%). 

-While the majority of digital-only adopters are higher-income earners, male, and aged 25 to 44 years, the study shows the start of a noticeable shift in user demographics when it comes to digital banking. The study showed that Spain sees high adoption of digital-only banking among the middle class, where 55% of digital-only customers have medium incomes, closely followed by Italy with 53%. While many see digital banking customers and predominantly Gen-Z, this is no longer the case. In Italy, 45% of digital banking customers are above 45 years old. In France, there are as many digital banking customers over the age of 55 as there are between 18 and 24 years old – 1 in 5 in both cases. 

-For the full 2021 Global Digital Banking Index and to download the report please visit https://n26.com/en-eu/global-banking-index.