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Study: Consumers believe mobile wallet data is secure

February 22, 2017

Consumers worldwide are more concerned about protecting their financial and payments information stored on a computer than they are about protecting the same data stored in a mobile wallet, according to a new study from ACI Worldwide and Aite Group. 

The study of more than 6,000 consumers in 20 countries revealed that only 43 percent of global consumers trust businesses — including restaurants and merchants — to protect their financial data, but more than 80 percent believe that data in their mobile wallet is generally secure. 

Principal study findings include:

• in only three out of the 20 countries studied did more than half of consumers express confidence in companies' ability to protect their data. These countries were India (60 percent), the U.S. (54 percent) and Thailand (51 percent);
• in all regions, the top security concern was theft by computer hacking (45 percent in Germany; 37 percent in Indonesia; 32 percent in the U.S.);
• more than 80 percent of consumers said they thought personal and financial information in their mobile wallet was secure;
• 65 percent of consumers said they would stop shopping at an establishment where they experienced fraud or a data breach;
• consumers were generally willing to interact with organizations to mitigate fraud and overwhelmingly said they'd prefer to engage with those organizations via mobile device; and
• 75 percent of consumers said they would be very interested in receiving a call or SMS message to their mobile device as a way to mitigate fraud.

"This data is a further wake-up call to the broader payments industry — including merchants, banks and financial intermediaries — that we must proactively educate consumers about security measures that are in place to allay consumer concerns," Andreas Suma, vice president and global lead for fraud and data at ACI Worldwide, said in a press release about the study. "Moreover, consumers must become more proactive in securing their personal data by using the fraud prevention measures and services offered by their financial institutions."