Perceived Risk as a Determinant of Propensity to Adopt Account Information Services under the EU Payment Services Directive 2

Abstract

Globalisation, technological advances, liberalisation of financial markets, and changing consumer behaviour are transforming banking profoundly. Under the EU Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), incumbent banks must open up their data, processes, and business functionalities to customers and third parties including rivals. It is critical to understand consumer behaviour post-PSD2, and the potential impact of PSD2 on the functioning of the retail banking and financial services market. In this preliminary study of 244 consumers from six European countries, we explore the role of social influence, facilitating conditions, perceived risk, and effort and performance expectancy in order to unravel the determinants of consumers’ acceptance of account information services (AIS) as provisioned under PSD2, which provide consolidated bank account information for consumers with multiple bank accounts across multiple banking institutions. Our findings suggest that the competing influences of (a) positive perceptions such as social influence, facilitating conditions, and performance expectancy, and (b) negative perceptions related to risk, sway consumers’ intentions to adopt AIS.