Faster payments will drive consumers to switch bank accounts - survey

45% of UK current account holders say the offer of faster electronic payments would encourage them to switch their bank account provider, according to a recent survey issued by the internet research company YouGov and ACI Worldwide banking and e-payments solutions provider.

UK consumers have high expectations when it comes to speed of electronic transfers and 41% of respondents say they would expect electronic payments to reach the recipient’s account immediately or in less than 5 minutes in total. 65% of UK bank account holders would like to see immediate payments for utility bills, 60% for credit card bills and 66% for payments to family and friends.

47% agree that a benefit of faster electronic payments is the opportunity to carry less cash. Payment delays are also one of the biggest irritations for consumers, according to 33% of respondents with a bank account. The only bigger irritations are fees for cash withdrawals from ATMs (55%) and fees for debit and credit card transactions (52%).

The younger generation of account holders (18 to 34) are the fastest adopters of newer banking services like mobile banking and contactless. 54% of 25–34 year olds use mobile banking at least once a month. 44% in that age group use contactless payments in an average month. They also find it more appealing to switch current accounts for the offer of faster electronic payments (61% of 25-34 year olds may make that switch compared to only 35% of 55 and over).

The UK is one of the leading countries when it comes to faster payments adoption. Currently, 10 banks are participating in the UK Faster Payment scheme with efforts by the new UK Payment Systems regulator underway to open up the system to more participants including challenger banks and other financial services providers.

Under the Faster Payments scheme, a direct payment between two current account holders takes just 15 seconds to transfer. However, consumers have very different views as to how fast they can expect payments to be transferred into a recipient’s account. 23% of respondents say they would expect an electronic transfer to reach recipients immediately while another 23% say up to three hours. 8% of respondents would expect electronic payments to take between two to three days.

ACI’s UP Framework for Immediate Payments provides an infrastructure that allows agility to respond more quickly to new business initiatives and customer demands. It offers the ability to renovate payments applications while still using the best of an organizations current infrastructure. The survey was conducted on more than 2000 UK consumers.