Filipinos are among the most frustrated by long banking queues —Unisys study

Filipinos are among the most frustrated when it comes to long queues at banks, a recent study of five countries in Asia Pacific by global information technology Unisys Corp. showed.

According to the Unisys APAC Banking Insights-Banking on the CX Factor Report, 53 percent of the Filipino respondents were annoyed by the long queues at banks with Hong Kong garnering the same score.

The study covered Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan.

The Hong Kong and Philippine results compare with Malaysia at 47 percent, Taiwan at 38 percent, and Australia at 23 percent.

“Part of the survey was what annoyed customers, so we went to over 6,000 banking customers for the survey and the Philippines was clearly the highest at 53 percent," Richard Parker, vice president for financial services in Asia Pacific, said on the sidelines of a press conference in Makati City on Monday.

“Filipinos are the most frustrated. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the queues are worse in the Philippines. It may be that Filipinos have higher expectations, Ian Selbie, solution director for Global Financial Services, said.

Since the study started in 2016, Selbie said Filipino respondents were the most annoyed by the long queues.

“Because it’s a very widely dispersed base, maybe they have to go to the branch for various reasons more often,” he said.

Why Filipinos need to go to the bank may have various reasons.

“Some interpretation or observation could be related to a number of things. One could be the amount of times they have to go to the branch possibly because of the different channels the banks have ... They may not have a good mobile experience,” Parker noted.

The same study showed that Filipinos are the most open to sharing their personal data with other companies to gain access to financial products.

“Just over half—52 percent—of Philippine bank customers are willing to allow their bank to share their personal data with other companies to access financial products (such as insurance, investment accounts, and mortgages),” Unisys noted in a separate statement.

“This is the highest level of willingness among the five countries surveyed,” it said.

The study was conducted in November 2017, with 1,200 respondents in each country involved. —VDS, GMA News