Security is the Top Priority for Filipinos When Choosing a Bank -- New Unisys Research Finds

Security and safety of data is more important than efficient services for Philippine bank customers; Filipinos have greatest appetite in Asia Pacific to use biometrics to access banking services -- Unisys Asia Pacific Banking Insights study

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Unisys Corporation

Mar 21, 2019, 07:52 ET

MANILA, Philippines and BLUE BELL, Pa., March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) reveals Philippine bank customers rank data security as the issue that matters to them most about their bank.

The 2019 Asia Pacific Banking Insights: Trusting in the Banking Experience is a study of the attitudes of banking customers in the Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Taiwan. This year's report identifies which bank attributes matter most to consumers and explores the delicate relationship between security, perceived behavior and trust in financial institutions.

Of the five countries surveyed, Philippine bank customers have the highest level of trust in banks to protect customer data with 42 percent of Filipinos citing that banks are the organization they trust most to share their personal data with. This is twice the number of people who trust government (21 percent) or card networks (15 percent) with the same information.

Underscoring the importance of security in today's banking market, Filipinos cite focusing on the security and safety of customer data as the thing that matters to them most when engaging with a bank (63 percent of respondents). In comparison, only slightly more than half (54 percent) of Filipinos rank efficient service and issue resolution as the priority and one third (36 percent) cite easy to understand and transparent products and services.

"Philippine banks currently enjoy a high level of trust from their customers based on their ability to protect the sensitive personal data in their care," said Ian Selbie, industry director, Financial Services, Unisys Asia Pacific. "However, as open banking is rolled out across Asia, allowing banks to more easily work with third parties to provide new services to customers, they will need to demonstrate that they are protecting their customer data across all parties involved in the banking service supply chain. Our research also reveals that trust in banks is lower for those aged 18-34 years, flagging that banks will need to actively work to maintain their customer base trust over time."

Overall, Filipinos recorded the highest level of comfort using biometrics to verify their identity to authorize financial transactions, compared to the other five countries surveyed. Eight in 10 Filipinos are comfortable using voice, face or fingerprint to access mobile banking apps (85 percent) or use facial or fingerprint recognition at an ATM (81 percent). Slightly less (64 percent) are comfortable using voice recognition when calling the bank's call center. But only just over half (53 percent) are comfortable with a bank using behavioral biometrics, such as tracking the unique way a person scrolls through websites, types on a phone or presses buttons, to verify identity. Those Filipinos who don't support biometrics mostly cite data security concerns.

"Filipinos have a strong appetite to use new technologies such as biometrics to help secure who can access their financial information. The lower level of support for behavioral biometrics is likely driven by a combination of less familiarity with this type of security measure and an unwillingness to be monitored on an ongoing basis. If banks want their customers to embrace behavioral based identity authentication they will need to convince them that the benefit of security is worth forgoing some level of privacy," Selbie observed.

Filipinos rank long queues as the most annoying thing about their bank, unchanged over the last three years with almost half (49 percent) annoyed by this issue. However there is a generational difference: those aged 18-34 years are less concerned about queues than older Filipinos, but they are more concerned about their credit card being frozen due to suspected fraudulent transactions.

"Younger Filipinos are less annoyed by bank queues than those aged over 35 years which reflects their willingness to use mobile banking options rather than visit a branch," Selbie said.

For more information, including an infographic visit: www.unisys.com/BankingInsightsAPAC.

More than 450 financial institutions worldwide rely on Unisys solutions. Elevate™ is an end-to-end, digital banking software platform and suite of applications designed to help financial institutions deliver an instantly secure, omnichannel banking experience to their customers. Elevate is secured with Unisys Stealth^®, an identity-based micro-segmentation security software that allows banks to microsegment and conceal critical assets and establish encrypted channels for secure user, application and system communication.

For more information on Unisys' financial services capabilities, please visit http://www.unisys.com/industries/financial-services.

About Unisys
Unisys is a global information technology company that builds high-performance, security-centric solutions for the most digitally demanding businesses and governments on Earth. Unisys offerings include security software and services; digital transformation and workplace services; industry applications and services; and innovative software operating environments for high-intensity enterprise computing. For more information on how Unisys builds better outcomes securely for its clients across the Government, Financial Services and Commercial markets, visit www.unisys.com.

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