Exploring Consumers' Trust, Fears, and Behavioral Barriers Towards Digital and Mobile Banking Adoption
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64060/IJPSSDV2i35Keywords:
Digital banking, Mobile banking, Consumer trust, Perceived risk, Technology adoptionAbstract
Digital and mobile banking is growing fast in developing economies, but many consumers with access to these channels remain only partially or not at all using them. The study aims to discuss the consumers' trust, fears, and behavioral barriers for the use of digital and mobile banking in Pakistan. The design was a qualitative exploratory one, based on the interpretivist paradigm. In March-May 2026, the interviews were conducted in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with 22 purposively selected participants, namely active users, partial users, and nonusers, of the instrument. Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, utilizing TAM, UTAUT2 and Perceived Risk Theory as sensitizing frameworks. The themes that surfaced were interconnected and included the following: conditional and fragile trust, fear of financial loss and fraud, gaps in digital literacy and self-efficacy, habitual and socio-cultural barriers, and institutional and infrastructure constraints. The study provides practical and experiential understanding of consumers' trust and risk management in digital banking, complementing the quantitative literature on technology adoption.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Nimra Gull (Author)
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