More than half of Canadians would share personal data with banks for discounts

Over half of Canadian consumers are willing to share important personal data (location data, lifestyle info) with banks and insurers to receive lower pricing on products and services, a recent Accenture report found.

As part of Accenture’s global Financial Services Consumer Study, the consultancy surveyed 2,000 Canadians on their views around sharing personal information with financial services firms. With the increasing popularity of Big Data and analytics – and the massive opportunity for competition-smashing insights therein – companies want to know how to get consumers on board with data harvesting.

A majority of Canadian respondents said they would give banks and insurers some (location data) or a lot (lifestyle habits) of personal data for lower prices (59%), faster loan approvals (53%), location-based personalized offers (53%), and personalized services that help reduce injury risk (53%).

Nonetheless, 72% of Canadian consumers said that they are very cautious about the privacy of their personal data, with security breaches the second-largest concern that would make consumers leave their bank or insurance provider (price increases were number one).

Banks and insurers, however, rank fairly high on consumer trust indexes – certainly higher than Facebook or Google – institutions for which consumer data is a major source of income. Banks ultimately make their money from money, and consumer data will help them make more of it. They also have more trust capital to work with than other organizations, which might have to offer significantly higher loyalty card-type incentives to get their hands on consumer data.

"Canadian consumers are willing to sharing their personal data in instances where it makes their lives easier but remain cautious of exactly how their information is being used," Robert Vokes, managing director of financial services at Accenture in Canada, said.

Globally, 64% of consumers were interested in adjusted car insurance premiums tied to safe driving, and 52% were interested in life insurance premiums tied to a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, 79% of Canadian consumers would give either income, location, or lifestyle habit data to their insurer for personal services and information that help reduce the risk of injury or loss.

In banking, 46% of Canadians said they would want their bank to provide savings tips based on their spending habits. As such, the avenue is open to source more consumer data, but financial services firms have to offer clear, tangible, and useful benefits to consumer in return.

Looking across the globe, attitudes toward privacy varied: only 40% of privacy-conscious Germans were willing to share more data with banks and insurers for personalized services, while 67% of respondents in China were willing to do so.