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Half of Europeans couldn’t access financial services amid lockdown

The company has surveyed 4,000 adults across Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK

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Half of Europeans couldn’t access financial services amid lockdown. Source: pixabay.com

According to Signicat, 41% of European consumers were unable to access financial services during the lockdown.

At the same time, 68% see pandemic-driven change as inevitable and expect 100% digital onboarding to be introduced.

This year we have all been forced to start doing everyday tasks differently. For many that has meant managing the entirety of their financial lives using remote channels for the first time. And this is where some financial service providers' offerings have been found lacking. Onboarding, in particular, is crucial. If customers can't or won't open new accounts, these organizations will struggle to cope with further economic turmoil. And it's not just the pandemic that providers have to get their heads around, other, pre-pandemic factors which have not been addressed are exacerbating potential customers' failure to complete onboarding
Sarah Kocianski, Head of Research, 11:FS

63% of European consumers have abandoned financial applications in the past year, the report states.

For any business, knowing your customer is challenging. Financial institutions must comply with KYC and Anti Money Laundering (AML) rules which require the consumer to share personal information. All too often identity-checking processes are not designed for the digital world.

The data found that 26% of consumers argue that the onboarding process is “difficult”. Meanwhile, 28% feel the onboarding process is longer than they expected.

Consumers have been spoiled by the ease of mobile-first financial service providers. In fact, 69% consider mobile-first providers to be better than more traditional providers.

Only 4% are unhappy with their new mobile-first provider, while 69% are happier than before.

We’ve reported that here were nearly 15,000 impersonation scam cases reported between January and June 2020. That’s an increase of 84% compared to the same period last year.

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