Banks may now want to keep a watchful eye out for Amazon.
In a new survey of 6,000 U.S. customers by Bain & Company, 65 percent of Amazon Prime customers said they would try a free online bank account offered by Amazon that offered 2 percent cash back on Amazon purchases. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was toying with the idea of partnering with banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. to create a "checking account-like product" for customers.
Bain's new survey, conducted in collaboration with Research Now, shows where consumer loyalty lies by evaluating customers' ties to Amazon versus traditional banks. The survey measured how likely respondents were to recommend a company to a friend or relative and assigned a corresponding "loyalty score" to each contender. Amazon out-ranked regional and national banks with a score of 47, Bain found, as opposed to 31 and 18, respectively. The military-focused United Services Automobile Association was the top financial service, with a score of 79.
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"The big banks have absolutely woken up to this threat," Gerard du Toit, a Bain partner and co-author of the report, told CNBC. "They're very focused on Amazon-proofing their business because they recognize that it's big tech, not the other banks or fin-tech startups, that's the real competition." By entering the banking world, Amazon would save on credit card processing fees merchants owe to card-issuing banks, as well as have access to records of what their customers purchase even outside of Amazon's virtual walls, per Bain — upping their cache of valuable consumer data.
Interest isn't limited to Amazon customers, either. Thirty-seven percent of respondents who don’t currently use Amazon services were willing to give Amazon banking a try, per the study. See more results at Bain & Company.
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