FINTECH AND TRUST - A study of the Social and Structural Determinants of Trust on a Fintech Savings Platform

Abstract: The developing field of Fintech, financial technology, has grown to accompany banks and other financial institutions in providing financial services. The rapid, continuous, evolution within the field and the increasing number of adopters of the technology makes it a relevant field for marketers to study from a user perspective. In this new market, Fintech companies have the possibility to capture users who have become skeptical toward traditional financial institutions. Thus, trust plays a central role as the provision of financial services involves managing sensitive user data. Trust and its contexts have been academically researched in many settings. This study adds the perspective of what determines propensity to trust in the context of a specific field, Fintech. In this research, the potential influence of two major dimensions was investigated;; social aspects and structural assurance. The social aspect brings up the increased online social activity and what role it plays regarding trust in Fintech, while as structural assurance includes traditional institutional frameworks in place to ensure success of the service provision. Varieties of these two determinants were tested through an extensive survey with a total of 167 respondents. The results indicated that there is little evidence for social dimensions taking a major part in the trust-building process in Fintech. On the other hand, there was proof suggesting that the traditional tool of structural assurance highly affects the trustworthiness of a Fintech platform in a positive way. Moreover, it was determined that attitude toward a Fintech savings platform is positively affected by trust in the platform, and attitude in turn positively affects intention to use.