Currency of Trust: Consumer Behaviors and Attitudes Toward Digital Financial Services in India

In the past few years, India has made tremendous progress in building infrastructure and regulatory frameworks that encourage digital innovation in financial services, but adoption and usage of new offerings have been slow to take hold and scale.

In this research report, Omidyar Network brings the voice of the consumer to the forefront of the discussion around adoption and usage of digital financial services in India, in the hopes that a deeper understanding of consumer behaviors and aspirations will help unlock higher usage and provide services that are more relevant to consumers' real needs.

Conducted in partnership with Dalberg Global Development Advisors, the report focuses on understanding the current context and behaviors of a diverse sample of Indian consumers - covering 30 communities across urban, semi-urban, and rural areas - regarding their digital consumption and readiness for digital financial services on key issues, such as ease of use, trust, and social collaboration.

Leveraging in-depth interviews with consumers and human-centered design prototyping sessions,"Currency of Trust" surfaces 10 key behavioral insights that reveal why Indian consumers are slow to adopt digital financial services, and groups consumers with similar personality traits, socioeconomic status, and access to technology, into five key personas that offer a pathway through which providers can initiate or increase engagement with their digital financial services.

The full report can be downloaded here.

An infographic on the five consumer personas can be viewed here.