Trust, Not Tech, Is Fintech’s Advantage Vs. the Banks

When it comes to banks, only 26% of Americans strongly agreed with the statement that banks had their best interests in mind, according to a recent report conducted by Salesforce—and, unfortunately, the survey respondents do not seem to be distinguishing between banking and fintech.

According to the report, fewer than half (48%) of American consumers trust financial services with their financial information; a number that again includes fintechs.

However, the study did show the expected rise in the popularity of technology (mobile banking steamrolling ahead, as usual), which seems to mean that as more of the world grows comfortable with digital, the key to retaining customers is not going to be the technology, but through customer trust. That means the biggest advantage fintechs have over banks isn’t technological innovation, but a lack of that legacy of distrust. After all, the consumer/fintech relationship is relatively young.

Mobile, P2P payments, and other digital channels that provide increased convenience to consumers have keenly disrupted the natural order of things. The Salesforce survey reports that 83% of the millennial generation state that they have used a fintech provider for basic payment services, as compared to 79% of Gen X and 62% of Baby Boomers.

Add to this that more than half of the millennials surveyed (52%) reported a preference for a fintech company over a bank, and the future looks rosy for the fintech world—except the Old Guard of banking are among those in the world who are changing with the times.

Technology is easier to grow than consumer trust—building an omnichannel digital banking service is not quite as difficult as it was just a couple of years ago, even if a bank has to strip a legacy system to do so. Coming up with a stellar integration of both—in other words, growing trust through technology—is what’s going to keep fintechs top of mind for consumers.

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