Half of consumers in Hong Kong are happy to let third-parties access their financial data so they can access more personalised banking services and higher returns, according to a study from Accenture.
Accenture, a financial solution developer, conducted an online survey of 2,010 Hong Kong consumers late last year, with results showing opportunities open banking could have in Asia, it said.
Its research revealed that 51 per cent of respondents would be happy to share their data with third-parties if they could get personalised services and better offers on mortgages, savings or deposits. However, there were only 31 per cent of respondents to state they would not be willing to share their data.
In previous studies by Accenture, it found 66 per cent of consumers in Australia and 69 per cent in the UK would not be willing to share their data.
The new report also found that 16 per cent of those in Hong Kong would be happy to share data with retailers and large online merchants and 33 per cent would share with international and local payments firms.
Of those to respond to the survey, 38 per cent stated they would trust third-party payment providers from online stores, while 26 per cent would trust large technology companies. Digital payments and wallet services also had some popularity, with 69 per cent claiming they use these services at least once a month.
The consumers were asked what they identified as the biggest concerns on open banking, with 71 per cent worried around security and privacy of their financial data. The next biggest concern was a lack of trust with large technology companies and third-party providers to handle the data, and this was followed by a lack of enough understanding on open banking, with 43 per cent and 42 per cent of responses, respectively.
Accenture managing director Fergus Gordon said, “Banks still enjoy a lot of trust from consumers, but Hong Kongers are willing to share their financial data if they know they’ll get something in return — indicating that the foundations are clearly there for Hong Kong to leapfrog many markets with Open Banking solutions.
“To strengthen their engagement with customers and benefit from consumers’ willingness to share their data with non-bank providers, banks must look for opportunities to partner with third parties to offer the types of services their customers want.”
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