• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 2, 2005

A majority of consumers want their financial services providers to offer additional e-mail-based privacy- and security-related services, according to a Compete Consumer survey released Thursday. A full 73 percent of respondents said it is important that financial services providers keep them informed of such issues. Compete based its results on a total of 729 unique surveys completed by consumers online.

Specifically, 80 percent of respondents would like to be notified when their credit report is accessed, and 70 percent said they would like to be informed whenever their credit card is used.

Because the majority of respondents--36 percent--had no opinion as to whether their financial services providers kept them sufficiently informed, Mike Bailey, managing director of Compete's financial services practice and the author of the report, said the survey results represented an opportunity for financial companies rather than a threat.

About 60 percent of respondents were concerned with monitoring their account balances. Sixty percent said they would like to receive updates from their financial partners at least once per month, while 35 percent believed they needed updates weekly in order to remain informed.

Seventy-six percent of respondents said that e-mail was their preferred method of receiving information about new products or promotions, while less than one quarter--17 percent--expressed interest in an offline method of information delivery, whether that would be postal mail or phone.

A clear majority of respondents--78 percent--said fraud protection was their top concern when considering whether or not to download financial data programs.