The vast majority (81%) of Singaporeans now use mobile apps to access bank services alongside other channels. However, 77% say they “definitely” want a better online experience from their banking provider, a new survey finds.

According to the Bank of the Future survey, conducted by technology and management consultancy Capco, 80% of respondents in Singapore say they would now trust a Big Tech firm at least as much as a bank to fulfil their banking services – with 42% stating they would trust a Big Tech firm more than a bank. 

When it comes to online customer experiences, Singapore’s mobile-oriented consumers ranked the top three improvements they would most like to see as follows: easy and clear navigation (59%), mobile applications (51%), and face ID and fingerprint logins (46%).

Currently bank customers typically have a relatively fragmented view across financial products such as bank accounts, insurance policies, pensions and investments. A majority (56%) of Singapore respondents say they would consider an app that gave them better visibility across all their financial products and also provided personalized insights to be “extremely” or “very” attractive – with most of the remaining respondents (38%) viewing this proposition as “somewhat attractive”.

Other key themes to emerge from Capco’s Singapore survey include:

• Willingness to share different kinds of data. More than half of consumers are happy to share data to unlock personalization, or are willing to consider doing so. Where customers are willing to share data, there is a relatively even spread in terms of the types of data they would like to share, which include location services (38%), life events, wearables, and health tests (all at 37%), with enthusiasm tailing off when it comes to social media (31%) and data from other bank accounts (22%).
• Sustainability credentials are of increasing importance to customers. Nearly one in four (23%) Singaporean respondents consider the sustainability credentials of their banking services to be “extremely important”, with a further 43% attaching a more limited degree of importance.
• Crypto volatility and fraud are not a deterrent. One in five respondents (21%) say it would be “very interesting” if their bank offered the ability to trade cryptocurrencies, with just over half (53%) showing at least some degree of interest.

Hayley Haupt, Capco partner and APAC head of strategy and consulting, comments: “Our survey suggests the burgeoning digital banking landscape is seeing a shift in trust patterns among consumers. Our Singapore respondents’ willingness to view Big Tech firms as attractive future providers of banking services indicates that the competitive landscape could develop in some intriguing directions as Singapore’s financial sector continues to evolve.

“We also identified a strong appetite for innovation in banking services among Singapore’s consumers. When it comes to more individually tailored customer offerings and experiences, they are focused on greater personalization, in line with our findings in other regional markets. There is clearly demand for a more aggregated view of financial information. To enhance customers’ digital journeys, banks should continue to explore how they can best educate consumers and provide clear insights around products and services.”

For the Bank of the Future survey, Capco reached out to 1,000 Singapore consumers to gauge their attitudes to banking services. The findings form part of a larger survey of almost 5,000 consumers across five markets in the Asia-Pacific region, which also covered Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area (ex-Hong Kong), Thailand and Malaysia.