Amazon customers say yes to banking sector disruption rumours

Amazon is in talks with several leading banks to offer a "checking-account-like" product for customers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And the move would appear to be a no brainer. A recent survey by LendEDU found that 44.5% of the 1,000 respondents (who had recently purchased something from the e-commerce giant) were open to the idea of using an account created by Amazon as their primary bank account, while 39.1% were unsure, and 16.4% rejected the idea. However, more respondents, 49.5%, were willing to use a savings account created by Amazon, while fewer respondents – 14.9% – were not keen. Over half of Prime members (52% for primary banking and 58% for savings) were interested in letting Amazon handle their accounts.

“Perhaps those who were unsure need to see an Amazon banking product be successful in action before they dive in feet-first. It makes sense that a good proportion of Americans do not want to be the guinea pigs when their money is at stake,” LendEDU observes. “That being said, it does not appear as though trust is a big problem for Amazon. A combined 87% of respondents answered with either “yes, very much so,” or “somewhat” when asked if they trusted it to always have the consumer’s best interest in mind. Further, the plurality of respondents, 38.3%, answered they would have “about the same level of trust” in Amazon handling their finances instead of a traditional bank. Meanwhile, 17.2% actually would trust the e-tailer more, while 21% were unsure, and 23.5% would have less trust in it.”

“Only Alphabet (Google) and Apple have larger market capitalisations than Amazon, and no major bank is really anywhere close. So who’s stopping it from launching its own line of banking products?” asks LendEDU. Further details here.