Highlights: Key findings from the Survey on Banking of Canadians

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) ensures federally regulated financial entities comply with consumer protection measures, promotes financial education, and raises consumers’ awareness of their rights and responsibilities. The Fall Economic Statement 2018 issued by the Minister of Finance stated that “the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada will engage with banks and seniors’ groups to create a code of conduct to guide banks in their delivery of services to Canada’s seniors” (the Code).

To help inform the development of the Code, FCAC fielded the Survey on Banking of Canadians to assess the banking experiences of older Canadians. Key findings of this research are presented below.

Key findings

The survey yielded several important findings concerning the banking experiences of Canada’s seniors:

• Seniors use and prefer more traditional forms of banking and communication. Nearly one third of seniors most commonly bank in person, with 6 out of every 10 seniors banking in person at least once a month. In contrast only 1 out of every 10 non-seniors most commonly bank in person. Similarly, seniors prefer to receive information about their banking products and services through more traditional methods, such as by mail or in person at a branch. The preference for receiving this information in person increases with age.
• One third of seniors never bank online. This is largely due to safety and security concerns as well as the preference for banking through traditional service channels. In contrast, only 3% of non-seniors never bank online. One quarter of seniors who have used online banking in the past 12 months reported having experienced issues such as the website crashing, trouble navigating the website or forgetting a password.
• In general, seniors who bank in person report the most positive relationships with their banks. Seniors who most commonly bank in person are most likely to agree that bank employees make an effort to understand their needs, ensure they understand products and services, and treat them with respect.
• A small minority of seniors have been affected by the closure of a bank branch in the past 5 years. However, of these seniors, 4 in 10 were greatly affected due to a lack of other branches or banks nearby.
• Seniors were less likely to say they have received information about financial abuse, fraud or scams. Most notably, half of Canadians aged 75 and older reported they have not received information from their bank about protecting themselves from financial abuse, fraud or scams.

Related links

• Code of Conduct for the Delivery of Banking Services to Seniors
• Survey on Banking of Canadians—Final Report