Business and Economy
Filipinos more willing to share personal info than other Asians
MANILA – – Filipinos are more willing to let their banks share their information to other companies for products like insurance, investments and mortgages compared to those from other Asia Pacific countries but they want to be assured of customer protection.
Results of the online Asia Pacific Banking Insights Survey, conducted by research firm OmniPoll for global information technology firm Unisys in November 2017, showed that 52 percent of the around 1,000 Filipino respondents said it is okay for them to let their banks share their personal information.
Aside from the Philippines, other countries included in the survey are Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, who all have around 1,000 respondents who joined the survey.
In a briefing Monday, Ian Selbie, Solution Director, Global Financial Services, Unisys Singapore Pte. Ltd., said responses from Filipinos on this particular question is the highest among the countries despite the fact that Philippine banks are not yet mandated to implement Open Banking.
Open Banking mandates banks to share their customers’ personal information to third parties like financial technology firms through an application programming interfaces (APIs) to improve customer experience and have new revenue streams.
Selbie said results from the Philippines of last year’s survey is “interesting.”
He cited that in United Kingdom and Australia banks are mandated to open their systems but consumers in those countries are not comfortable with it.
“Now the Philippines, at the moment, there is no mandated open banking yet Filipinos seem to be open (about it),” he said.
“I would say that that is a good sign. And I would also take some of those negative things – things that are annoying people. I don’t think that that is a bad sign. I think if you feel annoyed it means you’ve got some high expectations that are not being met. That’s not a bad thing for consumers as long as there’s a part to eventually meeting those expectations,” he said.
Results of the survey also showed that Filipinos and respondents from Hong Kong registered the highest rating on annoyance for long queues in banks at 53 percent followed by those from Malaysia, 47 percent; Taiwan, 38 percent; and Australia, 23 percent.
On frustrations on the need to repeat their personal information across different channels, respondents from Taiwan posted the highest at 21 percent followed by those from Australia and Malaysia, 20 percent; Hong Kong, 15 percent; and the Philippines, 13 percent.
Taiwanese, in turn, registered the highest rating on annoyance if online service cannot be completed online at 16 percent followed by those from Hong Kong and the Philippines, 15 percent; Malaysia, 12 percent; and Australia, 10 percent.
Meanwhile, respondents were divided among age groups when asked about their willingness to use Artificial Intelligence for online credit card assessments.
Those in the age group of between 35-49 years old registered the highest willingness for AI intervention at 56 percent followed by those between 25-34 years old, 53 percent; 50 plus years old, 50 percent; and 18-24 years old, 45 percent.
In terms of AI intervention for home loans, those in the 18-24 years old, 25-34 years old and 35-49 years old brackets posted 42 percent willingness rate while those who are in the 50 years old and above age bracket are less willing at 36 percent.
Richard Parker, VP, Financial Services Asia Pacific Enterprise Solution, said these figures “suggests that there is an opportunity for banks to use smart software to lead decision making for commodity products such as credit cards.”
“But they must understand that there is higher emotional involvement in a significant life event like a home loan and make a human option available for customers who want it,” he added.(
