Download or read book Behavioural Study on the Digitalisation of the Marketing and Distance Selling of Retail Financial Services written by James Suter and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objectives of the project were to (i) illustrate the landscape of retail financial services providers using digital means to market and sell their products to EU consumers; (ii) map the commercial practices used by these providers online at the advertising and pre-contractual stages and assess these practices from the perspective of consumers; (iii) assess, via behavioural experiments, the impacts of these practices and corresponding remedies on consumers' decision-making and understanding of products and test the drivers behind these impacts; and (iv) make evidence-based conclusions and policy recommendations. The preparatory phase involved a literature review, online desk research, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, focus groups and a legal assessment of identified commercial practices. Behavioural experiments were then conducted, in conjunction with a consumer survey, to understand consumers' perceptions of the commercial practices and to test the impacts of the practices and corresponding remedies on consumer decision-making and understanding. The results show, for example, the impacts of digitalisation on the sector, the importance of providing information upfront in a clear, comparable and balanced way and adapting information to the user's device, the effects of a faster/slower purchasing process, and that some identified practices may be legally problematic. Based on these results the study proposes a range of policy options.