Digital-First Lending: The Pandemic Raised the Stakes

More than 85% of consumers polled said they were willing to consider opening a financial account digitally - but they have high expectations

The global pandemic is driving a cultural shift amid rising customer expectations. To gauge how big an impact it’s having on the demand for digital-first lending, we polled opinion among 14,000 consumers right across the globe.

In every country surveyed, more than half of respondents (52%) said they now favoured using digital channels compared to a year ago. In fact, the vast majority (+85%) said they were willing to consider opening a financial account digitally – either via an app or website.

It’s clear they also have high expectations of being able to complete all related tasks via digital channels, including nearly three-quarters (72%) who expect to be able to prove their identity.

But if customers are obliged to switch from digital to physical channels – by being obliged to visit a branch or mail documents – the subsequent delay and frustration drives significant levels of application abandonment. Nearly one in four (24.1%) will simply opt to take their business to a competitor.

Once they’ve gone, they’ve often gone for good. Even simply asking customers to prove their identity by scanning and emailing documents or using a separate identity portal can drive a significant level of abandonment, with up to half (+45%) of customers indicating they may drop out at this stage. To read the insight into digital account opening in full, simply click here.

At FICO, we're helping thousands of strategic clients drive ahead with their digital transformation projects to help ensure they stay relevant, front-of-mind and a consistently competitive option for their customers. To meet the rapidly growing demand we've launched a powerful next-generation originations solution for digital-first account opening.

The work is underpinned by FICO Platform. It provides the ideal decisioning foundation companies need to successfully achieve digital transformation. It delivers unprecedented insight into your customer’s immediate and future needs by eliminating data silos and enabling seamless interactions between enterprise applications. For more, click here.

Digital-first lending infographic

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