Today, the digital association Bitkom published its study report 'Digital Finance 2020 – The transformation of the financial industry in numbers'. According to the results of this representative survey, 58 percent of German consumers are open to the idea of keeping their account at an online-only bank or have already switched to such a bank.
For this study, Bitkom Research, on behalf of the Bitkom digital association, interviewed a total of 1,004 people in Germany above the age of 16 about their behavior and preferences regarding banking services.
These are further details:
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In 2020, 19 percent of German consumers already had their main account at an online bank. 17 percent of respondents planned to change to an online bank within the next year while another 22 percent were generally open to the idea of an online bank.
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Thus, the share of potential as well as existing customers of online banks amounts to 58 percent overall – a significant increase compared to the previous year 2019 (46 percent) as well as compared to 2018 (36 percent).
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In terms of choosing a bank, German consumers consider digital services such as apps (67 percent) more important than having a service branch nearby (47 percent).
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The vast majority of 73 percent of respondents already used digital banking services. Online banking is extremely common among 30 to 49 year old people (96 percent), but less so among elderly people aged 65 and above (22 percent).
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94 percent of online banking users said that they did not miss any functions and another 91 percent considered this online service to be safe.
Kevin Hackl, Bitkom advisor for Digital Banking & Financial Services, said: "The corona pandemic has given digital financial transactions additional momentum. More and more people are realizing that they don't necessarily have to go to a service branch for their common banking inquiries. And just as video conferences have found their way into our everyday and professional life during the Corona pandemic, other banking services such as personal consultations will also take place digitally in the future – because more and more customers want it that way."
Source: Bitkom
More information and the report