Banking customers are embracing digital platforms to access their accounts and pay their bills, and more than one-third are looking to adopt digital banking as their primary form of banking within the next six to 12 months, according to a recent poll conducted by $139 billion KeyBank.

Thirty-six percent of more than 1,500 U.S. consumers surveyed listed digital banking as their primary form of banking while 35% said they are considering making digital banking their primary form of banking within the next year.

The numbers come on the heels of a discussion on the Cleveland-based bank’s digital focus by Dominic Cugini, chief information officer of service digitization, during the recent Bank Automation Summit.

“What we’re trying to do is really get people to think about that digital journey differently,” Cugini said. “We’re trying to think in the digital-first mindset, can we tech-enable, but then understanding the channel — so we can be where the client needs us to be, when they need us to be there.”

Digital banking is considered a convenience, with 64% of respondents saying it makes paying bills easier and simplifies their daily lives, while 61% said it makes them feel more in control of their finances.

Customer hesitancies

While digital banking adoption is on the rise, 53% of customers surveyed said they are not excited about future digital developments and just 19% of respondents said they were excited about a fully cashless society.

By extension, KeyBank customers are also weary of the burgeoning use of cryptocurrencies: 13% responding that they are excited for a U.S. government-backed form of crypto; 10% said they are excited about adopting crypto for payments; and 5% said they were excited about the use of a Metaverse wallet.