Holding accounts in several banks - a conscious or reckless consumer?

Abstract

Service providers are in a fierce competition for their clients’ loyalty, encouraging them to participate in loyalty programs or to install mobile applications. Split loyalty is becoming more popular on the banking services market. This means that customers are loyal to two or three companies or service providers by buying or using their products or services interchangeably. This phenomenon may be further explained by the liberalization of the banking sector, for example through the Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Whilst the unbanked are a commonly analyzed subject, the overbanked have not yet been examined in the literature. The aim of the current article is to answer the following question: is having accounts in multiple banks connected with customer recklessness or consumer awareness? The analysis carried out by the author of this paper shows that people who have accounts in many banks: are aware of the guaranteed amounts of deposits in banks operating in Poland, compare offers in different banks, and are less likely to be victims of phishing. Results show that awareness increases with respondents’ age. Age is a variable which directly and indirectly affects the number of accounts held in different banks.