A new research collaboration on open banking, between EY (Ernst & Young) and Symcor, shows that Canadians are now three times more willing to share their data with financial service providers they have an existing relationship with, when compared to 2020 sentiment figures, and this willingness to share grows as age increases.
“Put simply, as customers age, they become more loyal,” the 2023 EY Open Banking Study states.
The study further found that security has consistently been the most important variable in consumer’s decisions to share data with their financial providers. “Willingness to share data with fintechs has increased steadily from 2020 to 2022 by approximately 16 per cent. That growth was even more notable among 18 to 34-year-olds over the same period at 27 per cent.”
Small businesses, meanwhile, are more likely to share their data if there is financial incentive to do so, while medium-sized businesses placed higher degree of importance on metrics, dashboards, benchmarking and app marketplaces in their experience than in prior years. “In fact, medium sized businesses valued integration of these services 20 per cent more in 2022 than in 2021. Whereas the data suggests that small businesses value these services 30 per cent less.” (The firms identify small businesses as those with under 100 employees, while medium sized businesses employ between 100 and 499 people.)
More, they say businesses’ willingness to change providers is also evolving, with small businesses showing a decreased willingness to change, while the willingness to change providers jumped 11 per cent among medium-sized businesses.
“Canadians continue to display a high degree of trust in their financial service providers,” the report states. It further recommends that companies make use of a security-by-design approach to technology builds and ensure that customers are informed about how their data is being secured.
