2020-05-27

Visa Study: 62 percent are willing to open a virtual bank account, while less than half are interested in open banking services

         ·        Taiwan consumers expect better interest rates, lower fees, better service integration and better 
user experience from their virtual banks
·        Open banking has lower awareness than virtual banking and only four in ten consumers 
are willing to share their personal and financial data with third parties 

TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 27, 2020 – Appetite for virtual banking is strong in Taiwan as about two in three consumers are open to trying one of the new challenger banks when available, according to a study by Visa. While open banking products, although of interest to Taiwan consumers, is met by skepticism as most consumers are not ready to share access to their financial details in return for these services.[1]
The study indicates that 72 percent of Taiwanese are aware of virtual banking. The top perceived benefits of virtual banking are better interest rates (58 percent), lower fees (45 percent), better service integration (32 percent) and better user experience. The three main perceived disadvantages of virtual banking are the lack of physical branches (59 percent), limited services than incumbent banks (56 percent) and absence of own ATM network (40 percent).
Michelle Jao, General Manager, Visa Taiwan said: “Visa’s study shows that consumers seek quality digital banking experiences. We believe the arrival of challenger banks and the emerging open banking solutions will accelerate industry-wide innovation. Therefore, it would need collaboration across sectors from government to technology platforms and providers to other API and data owners such as retailers, telecommunication companies and utilities.”
Open banking is another initiative that is gaining traction globally. It is supported by many governments and the financial industry. It refers to a set of standards that allows consumers to have their financial institutions share their financial information with specifically selected organizations. For instance, someone who has multiple bank accounts and multiple credit cards would be able to give a third-party access to all their bank and credit card information. This would allow services such as consolidated overviews of transactions across all banks, expenses analyses, cost savings advice, and many other services.
Less than half of consumers in Taiwan (42 percent) have shown interest in open banking-related services. However, the required sharing of personal information still sees a lot of hesitation. Payment notifications are a service that interests most (69 percent) followed by the consolidation of bank and credit card accounts (63 percent); and instant and more competitive financing products (59 percent).[2]
Utilities and governments are most trusted with financial data – with a net trust[3] of 17 percent and 10 percent respectively. Banks and telecommunication service providers are next most trusted organisations in terms of consumer allowing them to access financial information.
“Safeguarding customers’ personal data and ensuring maximum security are two crucial steps in advancing open banking or open API in Taiwan, equally important is the need to educate consumers on what this is all about – how it works, what they are really signing up for. So, consumers can then make the right decisions with confidence. This requires collaboration from all players in the ecosystem,” added Ms. Jao.

For the complete Future of Commerce: Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2020 Taiwan edition, pleasure visit: https://tw.review.visa.com/partner-with-us/market-insights/futurecommercetw.html

[1] The “Future of Commerce: Consumer Payment Attitude Study” is conducted by Intuit Research on behalf of Visa. This online survey was conducted in May 2019 with 1,250 residents in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. It is intended to track and analyze consumers’ perceptions, adoption, and attitudes toward cash and non-cash payments.
[2] The “Future of Commerce: Consumer Payment Attitude Study”
[3] Net trust is calculated as sum of % “trust fully” + % “trust somewhat” - % “distrust somewhat” - % “completely distrust” in the survey answers