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Study: Digitalization in payments and effects on vulnerable groups

24.02.2025

The new study by oenpay and AIT Austrian Institute of Technology identifies vulnerable groups in relation to financial services in digital payment transactions. The results provide clues on financial inclusion in the sense of social and economic sustainability as well as starting points for the accessibility law in accordance with the European Accessibility Act, which will come into force in Austria in June 2025.

oenpay and AIT published their joint study “Digitalization in payments and effects on vulnerable groups”. The study examines the influence of digital technologies in payments and identifies vulnerable groups for whom digital payment technologies represent potential challenges and barriers, according to the oenpay management about the motivation for the study:

„Digital financial inclusion is becoming increasingly relevant in view of the increasing digitalization of payments and the European Accessibility Act, which comes into force in June 2025, and therefore also a question of social and economic sustainability.“

Franz Deim and Bernhard Krick, oenpay

In the study, vulnerabilities are defined as being based on various social and contextual factors, say AIT project leaders Georg Regal and Julia Himmelsbach on the challenges of digitalization in payments:

„Digital payment technologies can lead to barriers for vulnerable groups for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of technical accessibility or a lack of accessibility and availability, but also due to a lack of digital skills.“

Georg Regal and Julia Himmelsbach, AIT

Method and procedure

The study was carried out using literature and secondary data analysis in the first step, and a questionnaire study (online and as a paper & pencil survey) in the second step. The frequency of use, usefulness, availability and accessibility of payment technologies were examined with regard to five vulnerable groups:

  • People with disabilities
  • Elderly people
  • Women and non-binary people
  • People in rural areas
  • People from lower social classes

Key Findings

The present study shows that digital payment transactions have a number of barriers, especially for vulnerable groups.

The barriers mentioned include both technical (e.g. complexity of the systems, lack of accessibility) as well as social (e.g. lack of support) and individual aspects (e.g. reactance and negative attitudes, lack of previous experience).

Digital skills and trust in banks are key individual levers for promoting inclusion in digital payments. The results suggest that measures are needed to promote technical accessibility, availability, support, digital competence and trust in banks.

With regard to the respective vulnerable groups examined, it can be seen that people with disabilities, older people and people from low social classes are considered vulnerable groups in digital payments:

  • There are particular risks of exclusion for people with disabilities. The higher the degree of functional restriction, the worse the usability of all requested payment methods.
  • Older people, but also younger people (financial skills), face difficulties in dealing with digital payment technologies. There are particular risks for older people with low digital skills. The older a person is, the less often they use bank cards, payment apps and online payment services. Young adults also cite rejection and disinterest as barriers to use.
  • People from lower social classes often have to deal with less availability of technologies. The higher the social class, the better the availability of the Internet and smartphones as well as all requested payment services.
  • Hardly any significant differences were found for women and non-binary people. Even for people from rural regions, there was hardly any connection between place of residence and barriers to digital payment transactions.

Download

The complete study can be downloaded free of charge from the oenpay community platform oenpay – Payments Innovation HUB. You can register here for free:

Go to Community Plattform

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