Payments data: do consumers want to keep them in a safe or turn them into gold?

For policymakers seeking to protect consumer data or financial stability and financial institutions that wish to keep their customers satisfied it is key to know consumers attitudes towards payments data usage. This paper provides detailed insight into these attitudes based on unique surveys held among Dutch consumers. Privacy is considered an important payment instrument attribute, especially by low-educated, low-income, and elderly consumers and consumers who have little trust in other people or in their bank. Attitudes towards payments data usage depend on the context. For example, most people support the use of payments data to improve security or services but find sharing payments data with other companies unacceptable. Moreover, the latter practice would result in a significant decline of trust in banks. Depending on the purpose of the data use, attitudes relate to socio-demographic factors, online behaviour, satisfaction with the bank and perceptions of current data usage practices. Lastly, many consumers are unwilling to share their payments data with non-banks to use a payment app or get a financial overview. This holds especially for consumers with low trust in other people and in banks. 
 
Keywords: privacy, payments data, consumer attitudes, consumer survey, banks, trust.
JEL classifications: D14, D12. Working paper no. 563