Neobanking or an all-digital bank has been around for a few years now challenging traditional banking. Doing transactions online has become even more enticing especially with the present circumstances that the world is trying to get its grips at.

According to the recent study by Finder.com, an independent comparison platform and information service, digital banking adoption is set to increase with 9% of respondents saying they are keen on opening a digital-only account over the next year while 7% said it may be possible in the next five years.

“That means within 5 years more than 21 million Filipino adults are expected to hold online-only bank accounts,” the report said.

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Citing a Google Survey of 2,014 Filipino adults, Finder.com said: “Around 15% or an estimated 10.2 million Filipino adults claim to have a digital-only bank account.”

Neobank

In the Philippines, EON Bank, which is powered by Union Bank, is known to be the country’s first neobank.

The study also saw that so far, more men (16%) than women (13%) have adopted the latest banking service. Taking into account the numbers of potential clients who are planning to open new accounts, “the gap widens. By 2025, 32% of men say they plan to have an online-only bank account compared to 28% of women.”

The Philippines sits alongside Ireland and Mexico in terms of digital banking adoption which stands at 15%. The study found Brazil and Germany have adopted quickly among the 13 countries included in the study, with 28% of each adult population reporting to maintain accounts in digital-only banks. In Asia, India, Hong Kong, and Malaysia have populations who are using neobanking.

Those in Italy are least likely to have an online-only bank account at just 12%, according to the study. They are followed by Hong Kong at 16% and France at 13%.

Five years

The study said, over the next five years, India is set to experience the biggest boom in digital banking adoption, with a 21% increase in the number of adults with online-only bank accounts.

“This means that by 2025, we estimate that just under 400 million Indian adults will hold neobank accounts. Brazil, Malaysia and the Philippines are also expected to see significant growth with an increase of 16% in each country, followed by Mexico and the Netherlands (15% each) and Germany and Hong Kong (12% each). Spain, Italy and Singapore are expected to have a more modest, but still significant, adoption rate of 10%, while the data suggests Ireland and France will have the slowest growth rates at 7% and 5% respectively,” the study said.