Eighty-four per cent of UK financial organisations have concerns over customer identification, but British firms are less focused on investing in new technology solutions than their peers in Australia, China, Singapore and the US, according to the study.

The research found that UK financial services firms are spending less on digital customer experience: a third ( 35%) have increased spending on their digital customer experience over the past 12 months, compared to 67% of US firms, 55% in Singapore, 54% in China and 53% in Australia.

Over half of UK companies surveyed ( 59%) say they plan to increase their spending in the next year, compared to 83% in the US, 80% in Singapore, 79% in Australia and 71% in China.

Fintechs are spending more on digital customer experience than traditional firms in the UK ( 42% compared to 28% had increased spending in the past year).

The research also found that plans to adopt new technologies are comparatively higher amongst fintechs than traditional financial service providers. For example, a third of UK fintechs ( 32%) claim they plan to implement facial recognition biometrics to authenticate customer’s identity in the next year, compared to 19% of traditional players.

UK firms also lack confidence in their processes to execute a customer-centric strategy ( 51% compared to 79% of Chinese respondents, 67% in Singapore, 63% in the US and 53% in Australia).

The study is based on 315 respondents who are at manager level or responsible for digital customer experience at financial services organisations in the UK, US, Australia, China and Singapore.