Nearly half of Latvia's youth banking services would choose to receive on smartphone | BNN

Nearly half, or 49%, of young Latvians aged 18-24 benefit from banking services better than a smartphone, the bank concludes Citadel and the SKDS research center. The survey also shows that 60% of Latvian residents think that using remote banking saves time.

According to the survey data, almost half of the Latvian population, or 45%, would choose to become a customer of a bank and would request a payment card using only their smartphone. On the other hand, 35% would not do it. Looking at the responses of different population groups, we can see that as the age of the population increases, the proportion of people who choose to become bank customers and who ask for a payment card using their own smartphone decreases and, from age 55, is significantly lower than that of young people.

Similarly, the study shows that the most frequent contacts with the bank are in person (35%) and by telephone (27%). The most popular reason why residents choose to meet bank employees is to seek advice on banking services (51%), opening bank accounts (39%), sufficient borrowing (27%). ) or leasing (22%).

"It's no secret that the banking industry has evolved rapidly in recent years. If, at some point, customer service was dominated by physical subsidiaries, then by telephone banking and Internet banking, the services that can be received on a smartphone are becoming a new leader. For example, about 10% of all Baltic residents currently choose to use banking services only on a smartphone. At the same time, there is no reason to fear that bank branches will disappear in the future because a large part of the population still prefers to go in person to a bank branch, "he said. Vladislav Mironov, Bank Citadel Member of the board.

The SKDS Research Center on Population Surveys in Latvia, conducted in November 2018, surveyed 1,005 respondents from all over Latvia.