Consumers Ready To Look Past Passwords To Keep Digital Bank Accounts Secure

Convenience and trust are the principal catalysts of consumer behavior and brand choice in banking. Many consumers are “cross-device” users who leverage numerous devices to access financial services accounts according to their in-the-moment needs. These consumers have high expectations for their digital experiences, and their elevated standards extend to how financial services providers protect their data and manage their transactions.

This is just one of the findings revealed in The Passwordless Future: Decoding Consumers’ Device-Based Authentication Preferences, a PYMNTS and Entersekt collaboration. We examined 2,719 responses from a census-balanced pool of adult American financial and digital account users to determine their views on the security of their digital financial services accounts and the role of user authentication in their perceived sense of safety online. PYMNTS reviewed data on how consumers accessed and interacted with their digital financial services accounts on laptops, desktops and mobile devices and how they viewed the quality of their user experiences on each device.

Key findings from the study include:

• Research shows that 71% of adult consumers in the U.S. have opened digital accounts with at least one financial services provider, and 51% of digital account holders interact with their financial services provider via those accounts daily.
• More than one-third of consumers use mobile apps or web browsers to access their digital financial services accounts, and millennials and bridge millennials are the most likely to use multiple devices to access their accounts.
• PYMNTS’ survey found that 53% of account holders say their financial services providers’ ability to provide integrated, consistent cross-device experiences enhances their trust in them. Seventeen percent of cross-device users want more integrated cross-device experiences than their financial institutions (FIs) provide. PYMNTS also determined that 61% of cross-device users said they believe passwords — often a barrier to frictionless user experiences — will likely be phased out.

PYMNTS found that consumers are highly aware of the importance of their data security, valuing it more than a seamless user experience online. Many cross-device users who have become accustomed to frictionless account management are now open to alternative biometric means of logging into accounts, such as fingerprint scans, as a way of preserving consistent user experiences without compromising security.

To learn more about how consumers view the passwordless future, download the report.