A new survey conducted by Juniper Research has found that more than 50% of US consumers wanting to change banks would consider a digital-only bank, with the same finding reflected in a similar UK survey.

However, the findings showed that banks need to be more than technologically competent as users’ top priorities include sign-up benefits and good rates, which are often more important than digital features.

Banking Basics Still Important in a Digital World

The new report, Digital Commerce Survey: Consumer Attitudes to Mobile Banking, mCommerce & Contactless Report, noted that there are marked differences between US and UK consumers around reasons to switch banks.

The most common driver in the US is for sign-up benefits, but UK switchers prefer better overall rates.

Digital integrations are less important to consumers, with 26% of US switchers reporting integration with other services as important.

In the UK, where open banking integrations are available, only 13% of switchers consider this a reason to switch. The survey found that almost half of UK mobile banking users were unsure if they had used open banking services, pointing to an awareness gap that needs closing for open banking to be successful.

Card Usage Shifts the Contactless Payments Battle

The survey found that COVID-19 has greatly increased contactless payments use, with 60% of US contactless users stating COVID-19 safety as a reason to use contactless payments.

Despite the head start OEM Pay had in the US, 89% of American contactless payments users now use contactless cards, and 35% of current non-users are expecting to start using cards in future. However, use of OEM Pay solutions remains strong, with 85% of US contactless users using at least one OEM Pay solution.

Featured image credit: Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash