Transitioning Towards a Fully Digital Banking Environment: Analyzing Financial Consumption Preferences of Metro Manila Banking Customers

Abstract

The emergence of technology, combined with the adoption and integration of new practices, has greatly affected multiple business fields, including the Philippine banking industry. This leads to the entrance of fully digital banking platforms, a potential alternative to brick-and-mortar banks. Would Metro Manila banking customers utilize fully digital banks, or would they prefer the established traditional banking institutions as their personal choice for financial services and transactions? By surveying 385 respondents, the researchers obtained and analyzed information about the preferences and behavior of banking customers to learn more about the degree to which customer characteristics affected their preferences for certain banking products. This study proved that Metro Manila banking customers have a strong inclination towards physical or traditional banks, given that 60.5% of the total respondents are traditional banking users compared to 4.4% for fully digital banks and 35.1% for both traditional and fully digital banks. Decision variables such as convenience, efficiency, customization/personalization, security, and privacy also played a significant role in evaluating and assessing customer motivation in determining a preference. The results yielded a more localized and concentrated approach that exhibits the factors regarding traditional and fully digital banks that would potentially help the Philippine banking industry to adjust and adapt to emerging technology and consumer needs.