This is how digital Germany’s banks and insurance companies are | Press release | Bitkom e. v.

• Bitkom publishes study report “Digital Finance 2023”

Berlin, December 1st, 2023 – How loyal are Germans to their bank and how many are considering switching to a purely online bank? Who does their banking online? Are smartphones and smartwatches displacing cash at the checkout? How complicated is it to take out insurance online? And how widespread is interest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin & Co.? The new study report “Digital Finance 2023” from the digital association Bitkom provides answers to these and more questions and is now available to download free of charge. “Digitalization has affected the financial world. Whether banking, at the supermarket checkout or looking for insurance – German citizens see the advantages of digital technologies and want to use them. Changing customer needs not only represent a challenge, but above all also offer enormous opportunities,” emphasizes Lukas Marschallek, Digital Banking & Financial Services Consultant at Bitkom. “With the study report, we highlight the status of digitalization in the finance and insurance industry and show where something still needs to be done. Because at the moment the banks are only getting a satisfactory grade from customers for their digital offerings, and for insurance companies it is only sufficient.”

Some of the key findings of the study report “The German finance and insurance industry is so digital”:

• Older people are catching up with online banking: 76 percent of Germans use online banking, about the same number as last year (78 percent). The proportion of online banking users in the 65plus generation has increased significantly – from 21 percent in 2019 to 45 percent this year.
• Loyalty to the bank continues to decline: The days when people keep the account they open for the rest of their lives are finally over. At 55 percent, more than half have already changed their main current account. A year ago it was 51 percent, in 2018 it was only 35 percent.
• Digital banking offers are crucial for younger people: A majority of 54 percent of 16 to 29 year olds cite “better digital offers” from the new provider as the reason for their last change of bank. Among people aged 30 and over, the proportion is 36 percent.
• Contactless payments are part of everyday life: 95 percent paid contactlessly at the checkout in their local store using a smartphone, smartwatch or card. Two years ago the proportion was only 85 percent. 70 percent are bothered if they cannot pay cashless in the store.
• The vast majority take out insurance online: 8 out of 10 Germans (79 percent) have already taken out insurance online. However, only 18 percent of them found the process very easy, 36 percent found it rather easy. 20 percent found the conclusion of the contract to be rather complicated, 23 percent even found it very complicated.
• Digital overview of retirement planning desired: 70 percent of people who are not yet retired want a simple digital overview of all their expected income in old age.

Details on the results as well as a whole range of other figures relating to the digitization of the financial industry and the attitude of German citizens towards cryptocurrencies can be found in the full study report “Digital Finance 2023 – This is how digital the German finance and insurance industry is”, which is now available Free download available: www.bitkom.org/Bitkom/Publikationen/So-digital-ist-die-deutsche-Finanz-und-Versicherungsbranche-Die-Transformation-der-Finanzindustrie