Bank Stakeholders Survey

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The purpose of this study is to gather information about how informal caregivers who provide support for an older adult with banking tasks are perceived and supported by banking and credit union personnel. Results of this study will help with the development of new technologies that can be adopted by Canadian banks/credit unions to more securely support older adult banking clients and their caregivers.

Recruitment Script

Investigators: Dr. Celine Latulipe (celine.latulipe@umanitoba.ca), Yengin Loay (umloayy@myumanitoba.ca), Zach Havens (havensz@myumanitoba.ca) and Murray Cumbers (cumbersm@myumanitoba.ca).

You are invited to participate in an online survey about caregivers who do banking with or on behalf of older adult clients. The survey will take 15-30 minutes to complete and will be conducted online. We will ask you about your current perceptions around caregivers helping older adults with banking tasks, how caregivers access accounts, and what concerns and challenges you see. We will also show you some prototype online banking screenshots/movies that demonstrate behavioural nudges, which are interface elements that are designed to nudge caregivers towards financial propriety when conducting banking tasks on behalf of an older adult. We will ask you about your perceptions of the potential effectiveness of such nudges, the impact on trust relationships between the older adult and their caregiver and the financial institution, and how the implementation of such nudges align with institutional policy.  Risks associated with participating in this study are no greater than in everyday life. The benefit to participation is that you get to reflect on opportunities and challenges to serve older adult clients by better supporting their caregivers.

Participation in this study is voluntary. We are looking for individuals who meet the following criteria:

    • Must be 18+ years of age
    • Must currently work (or have worked in the past five years) in either a managerial and/or client-facing role in a Canadian financial services institution (such as a bank, credit union or financial services firm).

Upon completion of the survey, as a token of thanks for your time, we will make a $5 donation to one of the following charities (you get to choose the charity at the end of the survey):

If you are interested and meet the above criteria, please follow the link below to access the survey. A complete consent form is the second page in the survey, after the eligibility screening questions.

This research has been approved by the University of Manitoba Joint Faculty Research Ethics Board. If you have any concerns or complaints about this project you may contact any of the above-named persons or the Human Ethics Coordinator at 204-474-7122 or humanethics@umanitoba.ca.

To ask questions about this study, please email Yengin Loay: umloayy@myumanitoba.ca or Dr. Celine Latulipe: celine.latulipe@umanitoba.ca.

Survey Link

Link to survey (hosted on the University of Manitoba Microsoft Forms server). STUDY CLOSED

Final Report

While we did not receive enough responses to make strong statistical conclusions about the data, our respondents (n = 6) provided us with invaluable qualitative data. First and foremost, all of the banking professionals who responded believed that Routine Activity Theory provides an accurate explanation of how acts of financial misconduct can arise when people bank on behalf of older adults. We also learned that legal frameworks such as Power of Attorney are often preferred by banks as a way of handling these dynamics, as opposed to technical solutions such as proxy accounts.

The survey asked participants to provide evaluation and feedback for a number of designs for components that could be added to online banking apps to encourage good behaviour by people banking on behalf of older adults. Responses were positive overall, indicating that many of our designs have the potential to be effective deterrents, but also highlighted some circumstances where they might be ineffective or actually harmful.

None of the respondents noted any major conflict between our designs and their institution’s policies, indicating that our designs could be accepted by the institutions. The responses we’ve received will shape future novel research in this area by helping us to improve our designs to make them both more effective and more supportive of people who bank online on behalf of older adults. They’ve also highlighted brand new techniques that we can explore to continually improve the lives of families as they support each other over time.

To thank the participants, we have donated $10 to the David Suzuki Foundation, $10 to Food Banks Canada, $5 to Doctors without Borders, and $5 Alzheimer’s Society of Canada.