The number of people using online banking has plateaued, while concerns about theft and fraud have risen, according to a survey the New York marketing research firm Ipsos Insight is expected to release today.
“From 2004 to 2005, the percent really hasn’t changed much,” said Doug Cottings, the senior vice president of the Ipsos SA unit’s financial services division.
This year 39% of the survey’s respondents said they frequently or sometimes banked online. The percentage last year was 40%, up from 23% in 2002. (Ipsos Insight did not conduct a 2003 survey.)
Mr. Cottings also noted a high degree of concern about fraud: Eighty-three percent of frequent online banking users said their online experience would improve if they were assured that hackers will not steal their information. In last year’s survey, the figure was 73%.
Also, 73% of all respondents to this year’s survey said the prospect of information theft deters them from banking online.
“The key driver there as far as defection is also the key driver in improving loyalty, which is trust,” he said.
Banks worry that by raising fraud issues, they may stoke doubts in the consumers’ minds that were not there before, but “trust is a big issue,” Mr. Cottings said, and consumers today feel heightened concern even if they do not bank online.
“People are becoming more inquisitive,” he said. Though roughly the same percentage of people are banking online this year as last year, they are coming online more frequently to check their balances.
However, the same concerns that inspire people to check their balances online are inspiring other customers to check their balances more frequently through other channels, such as the retail branch, the phone, and automated teller machines, he said.
Fraud is not the only concern the survey’s respondents had about their personal information: Seventy-two percent said it is important or extremely important that their information not be sold to a third party.
“There’s a lot of confusion about that,” he said. For example, a new mortgage customer who starts receiving offers in the mail may mistakenly think the bank sold personal information. In fact, the information may have come from public records, and banks need to communicate that, he said.
