<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The pandemic COVID-19 has severely affected the global economy. The strict lockdown measures have also changed the daily live, including consumer behavior in retail banking. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on consumer behavior in retail banking, with a special focus on the Romanian banking sector. To achieve our goal, we performed a survey among the Romanian consumers in retail banking, using as research method the field survey based on questionnaire. The final sample comprised 738 valid responses from the metropolitan area retail banking consumers. The research brings a fresh insight on retail banking services consumption during the pandemic and validates a conceptual model regarding the internet and mobile banking services acceptance. The research’ results highlighted, among others, that the variable concerning the perception of the COVID-19 pandemic effect on consumers’ lifestyle has a direct and positive influence on the variable regarding the attitude toward internet and mobile banking services, mediated by other variables like safety of internet and mobile banking use and trust in banks. Several social and managerial implications are also discussed, because it is possible that the tendency to use internet and mobile banking services will prevail even after the post pandemic stage, as new consumption behavior models are developing. Banks in Romania should increase their initiatives to offer financial education courses and online tutorials to familiarize customers with the use of digital channels. Banks should also improve communication with clients and design new products and services to increase the attractiveness of saving process. They should demonstrate flexibility in negotiating lending and refinancing conditions as well.</p></abstract>

The pandemic COVID-19 has severely affected the global economy. The strict lockdown measures have also changed the daily live, including consumer behavior in retail banking. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on consumer behavior in retail banking, with a special focus on the Romanian banking sector. To achieve our goal, we performed a survey among the Romanian consumers in retail banking, using as research method the field survey based on questionnaire. The final sample comprised 738 valid responses from the metropolitan area retail banking consumers. The research brings a fresh insight on retail banking services consumption during the pandemic and validates a conceptual model regarding the internet and mobile banking services acceptance. The research’ results highlighted, among others, that the variable concerning the perception of the COVID-19 pandemic effect on consumers’ lifestyle has a direct and positive influence on the variable regarding the attitude toward internet and mobile banking services, mediated by other variables like safety of internet and mobile banking use and trust in banks. Several social and managerial implications are also discussed, because it is possible that the tendency to use internet and mobile banking services will prevail even after the post pandemic stage, as new consumption behavior models are developing. Banks in Romania should increase their initiatives to offer financial education courses and online tutorials to familiarize customers with the use of digital channels. Banks should also improve communication with clients and design new products and services to increase the attractiveness of saving process. They should demonstrate flexibility in negotiating lending and refinancing conditions as well.

The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior in retail banking. Evidence from Romania

Institute for World Economy, Romanian Academy

Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration

Management & Marketing

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The pandemic COVID-19 has severely affected the global economy. The strict lockdown measures have also changed the daily live, including consumer behavior in...

The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior in retail banking. Evidence from Romania

Data publikacji: 23 paź 2020

Zakres stron: 534 - 556

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mmcks-2020-0031

Słowa kluczowe
retail banking, the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and mobile banking, consumer behavior

© 2020 Claudia Gabriela Baicu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior in retail banking. Evidence from Romania

Data publikacji: 23 paź 2020

Zakres stron: 534 - 556

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mmcks-2020-0031

Słowa kluczoweretail banking, the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and mobile banking, consumer behavior

© 2020 Claudia Gabriela Baicu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Słowa kluczowe
retail banking, the COVID-19 pandemic, internet and mobile banking, consumer behavior