User Experience with Security Elements in Internet and Mobile Banking

Background/Purpose: Maintaining a balance between security and a positive user experience in mobile and Internet banking is becoming increasingly difficult for the providers of banking services. The goal of our research is to analyse user opinions about the current situation: how users perceive security and how the authentication methods they are using affect user experience.Methodology: Data were collected using an online survey among the users of 15 banks operating in Slovenia, and statistical methods were applied to analyse them. Results of the users’ study were evaluated and commented by a limited number of interviewed banking security experts.Results: The results indicate that the use of mobile banking in Slovenia is relatively low, as only 30 percent of respondents use mobile banking along with Internet banking. Slovenian users perceive security to be the most important factor in mobile and online banking, closely followed by reliability. We also verified whether the users knew which authentication methods they were using: 69% of respondents selected the correct authentication method. The opinion of 88% of respondents was that authentication methods do not limit them when using mobile and Internet banking. Results of the study of user’s opinions did not surprise the experts, although experts’ views about the balance between security and usability diverged considerably.Conclusion: Our results indicate that, in Slovenia, users of the Internet and mobile banking services regard security to be the most important element in mobile or Internet banking and find user experience less important while they absolutely do want products that are easy to use.