Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Betty was wary of banking on the website or through mobile apps. But that health scenario forced her to use it almost at the age of 72.

After three years, i.e. at 75, he became agile, for example, in paying his credit card, without waiting in line at the bank. Just enter the app with your fingerprint and transfer.

The only thing Betty struggled with was the mobile app updates, but once she gets the hang of it, it will be easy. Today, for Betty, the use of digitization is more than a necessity.

Betty is a generation baby boomers (born from 1946 to 1964), which made 17 million mobile phone transactions during 2022. Wide growth compared to 2021, where women performed 4 million operations and men 3.7 million, according to figures from the Association of Private Banks of Ecuador (Assobanca).

Lenín Faicán, general coordinator of the UISEK Business Schoolnotes that this generation is slowly moving towards digital, but this is not taken into account. “Because of the small income they have, they do it through a debit card, but they are a generation that is lagging behind and will immediately join the generation of millennials”says Faican.

Erwin Guillén, Director of the Economics Program at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquilpoints out that it is baby boomers are ceases to be resistant to technology. “Indeed, the balance is already very strong. The baby boomers They are at that stage where it makes sense to save time, maybe this type of generation is thinking about the security issue,” Guillén points out.

Guillén believes that this generation should be more present in the banking system It is necessary to socialize your services. “That there is more socialization, there is more education because the risk is also taken that by creating a product that is a little easier to use, the level of risk is more comfortable. The exposure level of that generation he is not willing to lose a dime. It’s not like in the case of the centenarians, that I invest $100 and then see what happens, to see if I can get a margin, but in the case of the elderly, it’s more a tendency to worry about the penny,” claims Guillén.

In terms of security, Faicán agrees and ensures that as long as this tool is strengthened, more confidence is created among those over 60. “This is what also prevents the increase in the number of users through digital mechanisms in Ecuador. Because if these applications are easy to use, they also become risky and this is what caused these famous express hijackings. You enter from your mobile phone with a code or fingerprint,” explains Faicán.

Meanwhile, the Asobanc report shows that millennialsi.e. persons aged 27 to 42, They are the generation that had the largest participation in all transaction channels in 2022, with 418 million operations implying $79.101 million in transactions. And there were 207 million operations from mobile phones alone.

“The presence of millennials is becoming increasingly relevant due to their adaptation to the various digital channels available. This group has accepted the mobile phone as their main channel for carrying out their transactions”, Asobanca points out.

Faicán points out that millennials have the peculiarity that they like immediacy and avoid lines. And they are very close to them centenary. According to Asobanca, people aged 13 to 26 (centenarians) They are the ones that are also growing in transactions and have grown by 67.7% in general operations. And there are 54 million transactions from mobile phones alone.

Rafael Benítez is 24 years old and has been using the digital banking system for two years. Pays credit card and basic services from anywhere. “I don’t like going to the bank and it’s easier, faster and more pleasant for me to pay for applicationsunless I need to go because of a specific topic that I have to do personally, then I go,” says Benítez.

“Technology is aligned with what they are looking for and this increase is linked to the index digital illiteracy. The first people were introduced to these digital products. Second, they see the benefit of time. And thirdly, banks have implemented security strategies and mechanisms,” says Faicán.

In July 2022, INEC released a study covering only the population aged 15 to 49, which represents 8.8 million people. Of these, 700,000 are digitally illiterate, which ranks the country at 8.2 percent, which is a lower percentage than in 2020, when it was 10.2 percent. In fact, the current rate is the lowest since 2014.

“Those who barely use it, due to the problem of digital illiteracy, are people from generation Xwho, due to their behavior and age, also want to be in contact with people and have a hard time doing digital transactions,” says Faicán.

100% of bank transactions via mobile phone, generation X represents 34.7%. They correspond to people born between 1965 and 1981.