The majority of bank customers have not yet heard of PSD2

March 14, 2019 is an important date in the Payment Service Directive (PSD2). By this date, banks and payment services must provide other companies with the appropriate account information and payment initiation services in an appropriate test environment together with documentation. Since January 2018, PSD2 has allowed third-party providers to access account data, provided the bank customer agrees. PSD2 thus ends the monopoly of banks on account information, because bank customers can decide whether and to whom they want to give access to the account in order to benefit from these services.

The aim of the PSD2 directive is clear: to make banking more convenient, secure and diverse for consumers. Both banks and new digital providers can provide new services that they can offer their customers based on account data. Passing on the account information to financial service providers, consumers will receive products tailored precisely to their needs and improved services. On the other hand, companies and credit institutions have access to services that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the credit process.

Even though consumers should be the real beneficiaries of the Payment Services Directive PSD2, the issue has not yet reached them: according to a representative survey of 1,000 consumers conducted in November 2018 on behalf of the information service provider CRIF BÜRGEL, 69 percent of the respondents had never heard of PSD2. The remaining 31 percent knew the term, but only 3 percent of the respondents stated that they also knew what was behind it. Only about one tenth of the respondents said they had already used PSD2-based services; supported, they still remember most frequently the use of online comparison pages (6 percent) or banking apps (5 percent). Even though consumer knowledge of PSD2 is still low, there is interest in future PSD2-based services for private purposes. For 28 percent, PSD2 services are attractive. At 41 percent, interest in PSD2 services for business purposes is already significantly higher than in the private sector. There is increased interest among men (32 percent), younger respondents between 18 and 39 years of age (35 percent) and respondents from households with at least three persons (34 percent).

In general, there is quite high interest (46 percent) in notifications when money can be saved through a change of contract - for example with the electricity provider or the insurance company. This service is also more popular among business people with 52 percent. In principle, 39 percent of those surveyed are interested in creditworthiness services. One way of doing this is to be notified if one's own account balance exceeds or falls below a certain threshold. Here, too, such services are even more relevant for business people, with 46 percent. In addition, PSD2-based services can also help protect bank data and the identity of bank customers from misuse. To this end, third-party providers monitor the data released by the customer, such as name and address data, account number or credit card data, on the Internet and notify the customer if suspicious or even stolen data emerges. According to the survey, such notification would be equally valuable and generally more interesting than insurance or personal assistance for both private and business customers (63 and 64 percent, respectively).

About the survey: In November 2018, INNOFACT carried out a quantitative online survey on behalf of CRIF BÜRGEL GmbH with 1,000 consumers on the subject of the PSD2 Directive.