COVID-19 digitisation erodes trust in banks: survey By Malavika Santhebennur 15 December 2020 The rapid “pivot” to digital services during COVID-19 has accelerated the ongoing decline of consumer trust in banks, according to a new report. Accenture’s 2020 Global Banking Consumer Study found that in Australia only 29 per cent of surveyed consumers trust banks “a lot” to look after their long-term financial wellbeing, compared with 43 per cent two years ago. The report, which is based on a survey of more than 47,000 consumers globally and over 2,000 in Australia, noted that while banks have been pushing consumers to use digital channels for transactional banking activity for a long time (and well before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic), the acceleration of this trend due to COVID-19 was unexpected.