Open banking, api and digital transformation trend in banking industry: factors affecting citizens’s usage intention in Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

Nowadays, digital transformation is necessary for all businesses, regardless of scale and type of industry. In the process of digital transformation taking place in the banking industry through the API mechanism, connecting and data sharing between banks and related parties becomes easier. Since then, a new business model has appeared, known as the “Open Banking” model. Information that customers allow to be shared will be distributed by the bank to third parties, thereby helping parties have the opportunity to improve service quality and create new opportunities, revenue and value. However, this new business model requires customers to share information, which can bring insecurity to them when their account information has long been known to be confidential. The main purpose of this research is to analyze and determine the factors and level of the impact of each factor on people’s intention to use Open Banking services in Ho Chi Minh City. A research model has been proposed from the theoretical basis, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) along with other factors such as perceived risk, financial literacy, personal innovativeness, firm reputation trust and information protection levels of customers. Compared to previous studies about Open Banking, personal innovativeness and information protection levels of customers are oriented as some new points of this research. Data was collected from 200 people living and working in Ho Chi Minh City and tested by PLS_SEM. Quantitative research results show that the people’s intention to use Open Banking services is significantly influenced by users’ trust in the bank’s reputation. In addition, personal innovativeness has the direct and strongest impact on performance expectancy. From those results, we proposed solutions suitable to the current conditions in Ho Chi Minh City in particular, and Vietnam in general, with our desire to improve and develop the Open Banking model, so that it could receive more and more attention from customers. The final goal is to create further progress for the banking industry in the process of digital transformation