UK consumers sceptical regarding payments data protection

The “Global Consumer Survey: Consumer Trust and Security Perceptions” surveyed more than 6,000 consumers from 20 countries on their perceptions and opinions toward fraud in shopping, data protection, and the ways they want to engage with firms to minimise fraud.

According to the results, 19% of respondents said they do not trust firms to protect their data and 33 % said they are unsure. More than a third of UK respondents (35%) see theft by computer hackers as the biggest fraud risk. After experiencing fraud or data breach, 56 % of UK consumers said they would stop shopping with a given merchant.

Mobile wallet and payments adoption is strongest in regions where other electronic payments options, particularly card payments infrastructure is less mature, for example, India (56%), Thailand (51%) and Mexico (38%) compared to ‘mature card markets’ in Europe like the UK (14%), France (15%) and Netherlands (20%). Consumers show a high level of confidence when it comes to mobile wallet security, 93% of UK respondents saying they believe mobile wallet technology is secure or somewhat secure, one of the highest rates globally. 

Consumer education on fraud awareness varies significantly across and within regions. In the UK, only 39% of consumers say they have received anti-fraud information from their bank. Across Europe, the picture is similar with at least one-third of consumers saying they do not recall receiving any anti-fraud information. Consumers are generally willing to interact with organisations in order to mitigate fraud. The majority of UK consumers (55%) prefer to be contacted by a bank via mobile phone if there is unusual activity on a bank account or card.

Only three countries had more than 50% of respondents indicate that they trust institutions to protect their financial and payments data. In some countries with very strict data security guidelines, such as Germany and Singapore, consumers report some of the lowest levels of confidence in data security and control.