Who shares? Credit quality and risk aversion effects on open banking adoption behaviours and intentions

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Tetteh, Godsway Korku and Bowden, James and Cummins, Mark (2026) Who shares? Credit quality and risk aversion effects on open banking adoption behaviours and intentions. European Journal of Finance. pp. 1-26. ISSN 1351-847X (https://doi.org/10.1080/1351847X.2026.2663938)

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Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which credit quality and risk aversion influence open banking adoption and data-sharing behaviours among UK consumers. Contrary to credit signalling theory, we find that credit quality plays little role in adoption decisions within the UK context, providing no support for the view that consumers strategically reveal creditworthiness through open banking participation. Risk aversion emerges as the dominant behavioural barrier to open banking adoption and to consumers’ willingness to share financial data, both with traditional financial service providers and financial technology firms. The effect of risk aversion on data-sharing intentions persists irrespective of consumers’ open banking adoption status, and operates through heightened privacy and security concerns, including apprehensions about data usage, storage, financial loss, and identity theft. We find pronounced heterogeneity across institution types, indicating that consumers’ data-sharing decisions are contingent on the perceived nature of the institutional counterparty. Risk aversion exerts a consistently negative influence across the open banking ecosystem. Additionally, we find that open banking adopters appear financially vulnerable, reporting lower financial satisfaction, reduced ability to cope with income shocks, and greater difficulty managing financial commitments, raising important questions about who open banking serves and carrying direct implications for consumer protection regulations.

ORCID iDs

Tetteh, Godsway Korku ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0900-4633, Bowden, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0419-1882 and Cummins, Mark ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3539-8843;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)