Key Shifts in Consumer Behavior in 2026: Financial Services Survey Highlights
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This report highlights key responses from GlobalData’s 2026 Financial Services Consumer Survey to show how consumers save, bank, pay, and protect themselves against fraud, including recommended actions for banks, payment providers, and fintechs. The Banking chapter considers factors such as consumers’ satisfaction with digital services, investment goals and barriers, channel usage, and mortgage holding and rate preferences. The Payments chapter explores areas such as in-store payment options beyond cash and cards, how consumers fund digital wallets, bill and recurring payments, buy now pay later, and what consumers want from credit card rewards and fees. Finally, the Fraud chapter looks at how many consumers have been caught by scams, how this varies by age, and how consumers protect themselves with biometrics, multi-factor authentication, and password managers.
Consumers are cautious with their money. Higher living costs and economic uncertainty are keeping savings safe and easy to access, and the same caution shows in borrowing: mortgage customers prefer the certainty of fixed rates. Traditional banks keep a strong position because consumers choose providers they trust and already know, but they now expect fair pricing, good service, and easy access through both branches and digital channels. Phones and wearables are now a mainstream way to pay in-store, although the technology differs by region. In addition, real-time payments, buy now pay later, and installment plans at checkout are becoming more common. But as payments get faster and more digital, fraud is rising too—and the risk differs by age, so providers need fraud defenses suited to each customer group.
Scope
Young consumers are the most frequent fraud victims: People aged 18–29 are more than twice as likely to have experienced fraud in the past 18 months as those aged 60 and over, and they report more repeat incidents.
Uncertainty is pushing money into safe savings: 2026 saw a rebound in savings to over a third of consumers’ assets, while risk assets dipped. Mortgage borrowers favor fixed rates, and mortgage take-up has stayed flat despite rate cuts.
Trust, fair pricing, and good service decide which bank consumers choose. Rewards and personalized products rarely have the same impact.
Reasons to Buy
Discover how people save, bank, pay, and get caught by fraud.
Determine how to grow deposits and investment business, keep and win customers by focusing on what consumers value most, and choose the right payment options for each region.
Learn how to improve fraud prevention for customers who are most at risk.
Google Pay
WeChat Pay
LINE Pay
Pix
Yape
QPay
Alipay
Mercado Pago
Klarna
PayPal
tabby
SPayLater
Afterpay
M-PESA
Table of Contents
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