Pinoys less patient in opening accounts online–poll

FILIPINOS lean toward simpler and shorter processes for online bank account opening, as a recent survey from an international data analytics company show that majority of Filipinos will abandon long online banking account applications.

In particular, a 2021 Digital Banking Survey of Fair Isaac Corp. (Fico) showed that three in five people expect to answer 10 questions or less in the account-opening procedure or they will abandon the entire process.

One in five Filipinos will drop out if asked more than five questions.

The survey also showed that consumer patience with account applications varied according to product.

Filipinos had the highest expectations for completing applications in 10 questions or less, for “buy now, pay later” products at 65 percent, savings accounts at 62 percent and transaction accounts at 60 percent.

According to Fico, this expectation was significantly higher than other countries in the survey saying just about 41 percent of United Kingdom consumers and 51 percent of Australian consumers expected to answer 10 questions or less when opening a transaction account.

“Where there is friction there is opportunity, as the quote goes,”

Aashish Sharma, senior director of decision management solutions for FICO in Asia Pacific, said. “Either you solve it for your customers today, or a competitor will do it tomorrow.”

Sharma added that “consumers want banks to find answers to application questions through technology approaches such as improved identity checks, transaction history analysis, open banking and government databases.”

The survey also showed that Filipinos who open an account digitally prefer to carry out the process entirely in their chosen channel, whether it be smartphone or web site.

This means that if customers are asked to move out of channel to prove their identities, many of them will abandon the application, either giving up on opening an account completely or by going to a competitor.

Of those who don’t immediately abandon, up to an additional 32 percent will delay the process.

“The survey found that any disruption matters. Asking people to scan and e-mail documents or use a separate identity portal causes almost as much application abandonment as asking them to visit branches or mail in documents,” Fico said.