Financial knowledge and trust in financial institutions

Based on analysis of 14 years of data on Dutch consumers' trust in financial institutions, we find that financially literate consumers are more likely to trust banks, insurance companies and pension funds. This result applies both to broad-scope trust (trust in financial institutions in general) and narrow-scope trust (trust in one's own financial institution). Our conclusion holds when we use a financial literacy proxy based on self-assessed knowledge or a proxy based on actual knowledge. For all types of financial institutions researched, we find that narrow-scope trust is significantly higher than broad-scope trust, but both forms of trust are positively related. Financially knowledgeable people are more likely to trust managers of financial institutions and have more trust in the prudential supervisory authority. Finally, our results suggest that trust in the supervisory authority positively correlates with trust in the financial sector

Trust in financial institutions:A survey

Trust in financial institutions is widely considered important. However, a clear overview of studies on the drivers of trust is missing. We intend to fill this gap in the literature. After discussing why trust in financial institutions is important, we turn to its measurement, where we distinguish between trust in one's own institution and trust in institutions in general (narrow-scope and broad-scope trust), and discuss how these measures differ from generalized trust (i.e. trust in other people with whom there is no direct relationship). Finally, we survey the determinants of trust in financial institutions and discuss a wide range of drivers. First, trust in financial institutions depends on the economic situation: it behaves procyclically and is negatively affected by financial crises. Second, the behavior of financial institutions matters: prudent conduct, the provision of good services and financial health have a positive effect on trust. Third, although consumer characteristics also relate to trust, many of these relationships are context-dependent. Fourth, there is a positive association between narrow-scope trust on the one hand and broad-scope trust and generalized trust on the other. Last, policy measures and supervisory actions can help prevent loss of trust

Paying in a blink of an eye:It hurts less, but you spend more

The key objective of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of the factors associated with pain of paying and to extend knowledge of the consequences. Using rich consumer survey data on the Netherlands, we find that electronic payments – both online and offline – hurt less than cash payments. This holds especially for contactless payments and iDEAL payments, a frequently used online payment method in the Netherlands, and for older people in particular but not for teenagers. Furthermore, the perceived pain of paying is positively related to the price of the product or service and slightly lower for an outing compared to grocery shopping. In addition, the pain is relatively high for individuals that are likely to value money more, such as people who find it hard to make ends meet with their income. On average, cash is perceived to be most helpful in preventing overspending, whereas contactless payments are the least helpful. The lower the perceived pain of paying contactless is in comparison to the pain associated with other payment methods, the lower its perceived usefulness in preventing overspending. Moreover, the intensity of use of contactless payments is negatively correlated with the relative pain of paying contactless, which suggests that people try to avoid the pain of paying. As the usage of cash is declining, it is important that policymakers develop tools that help consumers in averting overspending when utilizing electronic payment methods, particularly contactless ones.</p

Banking products: You can take them with you, so why don't you?

Policymakers around the world call for more competition in the banking sector. One prerequisite to achieving this is customer mobility. Despite its policy relevance, surprisingly little is known about consumers’ bank switching behaviour. We show that the principal reasons to stay at one’s bank are a good bank-customer relationship, practical barriers, and the perception that there is not much benefit in switching. Moreover, we find that the reported propensity to switch varies across banking products. For the main current and savings accounts, this propensity is most strongly related to the bank-customer relationship, while for mortgage loans it is especially linked to switching experience. These findings have important implications for antitrust policy; they provide an argument against using a cluster-based legal standard for the analysis of competition and in favour of a disaggregated approach. Regarding the effectiveness of hypothetical policy initiatives to lower switching barriers, we find that the reported switching propensity with current accounts is higher in the case of account number portability, while more knowledge of the existing switching service has no significant effect. Lastly, scenario analysis shows that a policy of allowing new foreign banks to enter the savings market is less promising for enhancing mobility than a policy that increases the number of domestic players