Nearly 60% of consumers would be willing to share significant personal information with their bank and insurer in return for lower prices on products and services, according to a new report from Accenture.
Accenture’s Financial Services Consumer Study surveyed 47,000 consumers in 28 markets. More than half of consumers would share information such as location data and lifestyle information in return for benefits like discounted gym memberships and personalised offers, according to the study.
However, 75% of consumers said they were very cautious about the privacy of their personal information. When asked what would make them leave their current bank or insurer, data breaches were consumers’ second-biggest concern behind increasing costs.
“Consumers share personal data to make their lives easier, or more interconnected, and this is extending to how we manage our personal finances,” said Piercarlo Gera, senior managing director at Accenture’s financial services practice. “Although consumers want banks and insurers to use their data to play an active role in improving their lives, banks should tread cautiously, ensuring they fully understand their customers by providing relevant, in-the-moment offers while continuing to safeguard customer data. This is a call for banks and insurers to see their customers as people with needs beyond their bank accounts and premiums.”
Customers largely supported the use of personal data to tailor insurance premiums, with 64% interested in receiving adjusted car insurance premiums based on their driving habits and 52% interested in personalised life insurance premiums tied to a healthy lifestyle, Accenture found. Seventy-nine per cent (79%) said they would provide personal data to their insurer if they believed it would help reduce the possibility of injury or loss.
The appetite for data sharing differed around the world, according to Accenture. Fifty per cent (50%) of US customers said they would be willing to share more data for personalised services, while only 40% of customers in Germany and the UK would be willing to do so. China had the largest appetite for data sharing, with 67% of customers saying they would be willing to share personal information in return for better services.
