What is the New Normal for German Retail Banks Post COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The main purpose of the paper is to determine to what extent customers are open to digitalization of the retail banking services in Germany and what are the critical factors that impact the decision of customers regarding the use of digital interface post Covid-19 pandemic. The paper determines the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related problems in German retail banks upon which a thorough digital evolution system and management strategies could be identified for the retail banks. This paper dives into the factors that could adversely affect the usage of digital banking in Germany and the strategies that could be implemented by the retail banks to promote the use of digital channels among retail banks’ customers. For the data collection, a survey consisting of 16 questions was designed and was administered online. The survey attracted 168 unique visits and 118 par-ticipants. Data collected from these 118 respondents in this study has been organ-ised and analysed using tools such as Microsoft Excel. The key findings of this paper highlighted that a large percentage of 69.49% are willing to use digital banking regularly post-COVID-19 pandemic. The findings illustrated that individual customers have a positive perception toward enhanced digitization of banking services. Security and trust concerns, poor acces-sibility and speed of connection, challenges navigating the bank’s website, and con-cerns about personalized service are some of the critical factors that challenge digi-tal banking in Germany. Retail banks also need to support their customers in com-pleting most of the banking services remotely, such as changing terms of the loan, paying for goods in retailing outlets, or application for bank products.

Keywords: Digitalization, Post-COVID-19, German retail banking, new normal