The Open Banking Adoption Among Consumers in Europe: The Role of Privacy, Trust, and Digital Financial Inclusion

Abstract

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) mandated every bank in the European Union (EU) to provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow every licensed company (as well as other banks) to access information gathered on customers’ payment accounts and then order payment transactions in their names. Thus, open banking results in revolutionary changes in the relations between banks and customers and creates opportunities for new business models in the FinTech industry. This paper analyzes factors that affect the adoption of open banking services among consumers based on a pan-European survey of over 5,500 respondents from 22 countries. The consumers’ declarations suggest that the market potential of open banking services is significant. However, these services are not expected to improve financial inclusion in Europe. Open banking will mainly go to people who already use digital finance most intensively, i.e., young, active users of innovative financial services who acknowledge the usefulness of mobile technologies and generally trust the financial sector. The preference for anonymity and reluctance to share data negatively impact the propensity to take to open banking, as well as the distrust of non-bank providers. The results entail managerial implications useful for open banking service providers and supervisory bodies.

Keywords: open banking, PSD2, payment innovation, privacy, trust

JEL Classification: E42, G21, G23, G28, O33