Gen Z’s Intention to Accept Mobile Banking Services: The Impact of Digitalization and Technologization

Abstract

Digitalization and technology drive socio-economic development worldwide, transforming financial services and improving accessibility and convenience. In this regard, mobile banking has reduced bank queues. It is also growing due to its efficiency, with Gen Z (born 1993-2005) leading its adoption, so understanding their perspective is crucial. This study, therefore, examined the factors affecting Gen Z customers' inclination to use mobile banking services in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City. This research employs descriptive and explanatory design to examine thoroughly the determinants of people's intentions to use mobile banking services. The data were gathered using purposive sampling from 305 Gen Z individuals who had used mobile banking services at least once, and SEM with PLS version 4.1.0.1 was used for data analysis. The study findings indicate that perceived usefulness, social influence, and trust have a positive and significant impact, and perceived ease of use was found to have a positive but insignificant impact on Gen Z's inclination to use mobile banking services. In contrast, perceived risk negatively and insignificantly impacts the inclination to use mobile banking services. However, perceived ease of use and perceived risk fully mediate Gen Z's intention to adopt mobile banking services through perceived trust. Social influence exhibits complementary partial mediation, and perceived usefulness does not mediate the inclination to use mobile banking services through perceived trust. The study offers vital insights to regulators, policymakers, providers of Fintech services, and BFIs as they should prioritize building customer trust, emphasizing usefulness and social influence when developing mobile banking platforms.

Keywords

• mobile banking
• gen z
• trust
• digitalization
• technologization
• socio-economic development
• socio-economic challenges
• good governance