Further support for my thought expressed last Tuesday that what primarily influences consumer behavior when banking online is not information privacy, but information security, comes from these studies conducted by ComScore Networks, Entrust and RSA Security.
Fewer bank customers are adopting Web for their business and a desire for better security may be one of the reasons, recent surveys find.
The growth of bank customers performing transactions online grew by only 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005, the lowest sequential growth in three years, according to a study from consumer behavior researcher ComScore Networks.
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In the ComScore study, 23 percent said that increased security was their prime reason for switching to online banking, but free offers and products were the chief reason for 33 percent of the respondents to do so.
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Another study conducted by financial security firm Entrust found that 18 percent of respondents polled had moved away from online banking as a result of fears of fraud and identity theft.
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A survey conducted by the RSA Security firm that found 60 percent of respondents wanted their banks to notify them when irregularities popped up on their accounts, and 90 percent wanted their banks to monitor their online banking transactions as closely as they do credit card purchases.
The Entrust study also found that 81% of customers do not want to pay for extra security. That's consistent with the results of previous surveys. Customers want to be secure. Like breathing clean air, they don't expect to pay for it.
Bank of America seems to confound the article's initial conclusions, however. The article's author recites a number of highly-publicized instances in which the bank "experienced many egregious security breaches and data thefts in 2005." Yet, the article notes that Bank of America "topped the list, with 5.1 million customers using its online bill paying system in the fourth quarter of 2005, nearly half of all customers using online payment systems with their banks. Bank of America also topped the charts for overall online banking growth in 2005, with 15 million subscribers. Cardweb.com reported the Charlotte, NC-based banking behemoth experienced a 69% increase in signups and sales through its Web site..."
If consumers are avoiding online banking because of security risks and Bank of America had many "egregious" data security breaches and thefts, how do you explain a 69% increase in online banking activity? Perhaps Bank of America customers don't read the newspapers or news magazines, watch television, listen to radio, surf the Internet, or otherwise obtain any any news whatsoever, online or offline. Perhaps the old saw is correct: "Ignorance is bliss."
Or, perhaps, we need more studies, surveys, polls and reports.
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