Following this announcement, the study made by DECTA revealed that a vast majority of digital banking users and customers are reluctantly maintaining multiple financial apps due to feature gaps in their primary platform, with 91% of clients stating they would consolidate to a single app if it met all their needs.
The `Wallet Fatigue 2025` study was based on survey responses from over 1.500 users across the region of the UK and Europe, plus analysis of more than 50.000 app reviews. It revealed that having multiple financial apps is predominantly a forced necessity rather than a personal choice, as it found that 60% of users add a second finance app specifically because their primary app lacks essential features.
According to the official press release, included in the key study finding are feature gaps that drive multi-app adoption, with 60% cite missing features as the primary reason for adding additional finance apps, while security, integration, and budgeting tools are the most commonly missing features, each cited by over 45% of users. 52% of customers who supplement their main app say budgeting and spending analysis features are lacking as well.
The report also addresses a fundamental assumption about consumer behaviour in digital banking, revealing that multi-app usage is predominantly driven by necessity rather than preference. Only 2% prefer maintaining several apps by choice, as nearly all multi-app clients currently maintain multiple solutions reluctantly.
Advanced tech users are most satisfied with single-app solutions, with 85% reporting high satisfaction, while intermediate tech users average the highest number of apps at 2.1 per person, and basic tech users stick to simpler setups, averaging just 1.1 apps. At the same time, 39% of negative app reviews cite poor customer support, account freezes, or verification issues, with multiple customers maintaining secondary apps as `insurance` against primary app failures. 54% of all reviews for major digital banks reflect negative experiences as well.
The research also reveals that multi-app usage creates significant friction in clients' daily financial management, with more than 80% reporting at least occasional confusion about where key information is stored across different platforms. This fragmentation isn't driven by consumer preference, as it represents a forced necessity created by incomplete feature sets in individual apps. Furthermore, the study found that daily spending users still struggle with this fragmentation. While 57.5% manage with one app, 42.5% leverage multiple apps, with 74% citing missing features as the primary driver.
The findings suggest significant opportunities for financial service providers to capture market share by addressing feature gaps that currently force customers to maintain multiple apps. The most in-demand missing features include integration capabilities (cited by 60% of advanced users), improved security tools (mentioned by over 50% across all user types), comprehensive budgeting and analytics, as well as optimised rewards and cashback programs, reliable customer support, and account stability.
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