Ecuadorians are clients of more than two financial entities, an exact average of 2.49 banks or cooperatives. This is according to what was expressed by 65% ​​of banking people over 18 years old who took part in 1,500 interviews between May and June, conducted by Inmark, a consulting company present in Europe and Latin America, including Ecuador.

Residents of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenza, Loja, Santo Domingo, Machala, Ambat and Manta were consulted; and 35% stated that they are only clients of banks or cooperatives. These results reflect the high diversification of Ecuadorians’ financial relationships compared to other markets that show a lower average, such as Spain, where it is 1.73, and Puerto Rico, with 1.97.

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This kind of study has been carried out in Spain without interruption, annually, for 36 years (they started in 1988), and in Latin America they started to be carried out 23 years ago (in 2000), and they are carried out in Argentina. , Chile, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Ecuador, according to Manuel López Hernández, CEO of Inmark.

Meanwhile, this high diversification also translates, according to the study, into a high predisposition to start new financial relationships, 10.3% of the relationships with banks or cooperatives maintained by respondents were started in the last twelve months; Compared to this value, 2% dropped out of school.

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Data for major banks and cooperatives show that cooperatives are the most active in attracting new clients (+15.4), and JEP stands out among them (+12.2). Meanwhile, in the banking segment, Banco Pichincha (+14.9) and Banco de Loja (+9.1) stand out.

On the other hand, the research revealed the main reasons for choosing a main bank or a cooperative, namely reputation and image (17.4%), proximity (17.3%) and number of branches (14.5%), the three most important attributes mentioned respondents. This is followed by a choice based on tradition or custom (13.5%), recommendations by family or friends (12.1%) and a deposit on salary or pension with 11.1%.

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In the digital sphere, the results show that in Ecuador, 71.7% of the banking population connects with their bank/cooperative through channels on the line. There is another 28.1% of the population that is digital but not financial; i.e. you have access to the Internet and buy products and services online, but you do not connect to your bank/cooperative via the channel on the line.

These people have prejudices, mainly trust, in order not to use this channel of relations with their bank/cooperative.

This same analysis, by age, shows that digital financial services are growing as the age of financial service users is lower: from 18 to 30 years (77.6%), from 31 to 59 years (74.1%) and from 60 years or older (50 %). In this sense, the situation in Ecuador is favorable for financial users to be bank users. on the line since 99.8% have electronic devices that enable them to access the Internet, the main of which are mobile phones, smart TV or computer.

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In addition, 34.2% indicated that they had purchased products or services online in the past year, which shows that there is still a long way to improve.

Finally, another relevant aspect that the study reveals is that 19.6% of the population that is part of this research is unbanked. Applying this percentage to the estimated universe means that there are close to 760,000 unbanked people, which is an opportunity for banks and cooperatives that want to implement campaigns to attract this market segment.

The level of non-banking is higher among women (20.9%) than among men (18.3%). It is also higher in the age group from 25 to 54 (over 24.0%), and in Cuenca (21.7%) and Loja (22.1%).