How Austrians bank and pay in an increasingly digitalized world – results from an OeNB survey

Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald () and Helmut Stix
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Doris Ritzberger-Grünwald: Oesterreichische Nationalbank, http://www.oenb.at

Monetary Policy & the Economy, 2018, issue Q3/18, 52-89

Abstract: The digital transformation in banking and payments has important consequences both for the financial industry and for consumers. Nevertheless, there has been limited empirical evidence about the diffusion of financial innovations among consumers in Austria. This paper presents the results of a nationally representative survey. The survey covers questions about how Austrians conduct banking, their use of innovative payment methods and services/products in the realm of financial technologies (fintech) as well as their ownership and awareness of crypto assets. Regression analyses are conducted to identify drivers of adoption of such services and products. The key variables across products are trust in the safety of a product, age, financial risk tolerance and interest in technology. Overall, the results reveal that the way Austrians bank and pay has been changing considerably. In particular, 58% of Austrians aged 14 or over use online banking and 36% use their mobile devices for banking activities. Contactless payments (without entering a PIN) are conducted by roughly one-half of Austrians. The use of several fintech services/products and ownership of crypto assets (2%) is confined to a much smaller share of Austrians. Despite the relatively widespread use of digital banking and payment products/ services, the results also show that a sizeable share of the population does not use innovative financial products, still visits bank branches and has a preference for using cash for daily purchases. Also, an overwhelming majority of Austrians (including those who use financial innovations) want cash to remain.

Keywords: financial digitalization; banking; payment; fintech; innovations; cash; digital currency; Bitcoin; adoption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E41 G20 O31 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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