Here's why Singaporeans' trust in digital services is low

Its Digital Trust Index Score was only 2.3 out of 10.

Despite advanced fraud management systems, Singaporeans find it hard to trust digital services providers, according to the Experian-IDC Digital Trust Index (DTI).

The report said Singapore scored only 2.3 out of 10, lower than Asia Pacific's 3.2. Singapore is the second to the last market in terms of digital trust.

New Zealand topped the rankings with a score of 4.2, followed by Japan with 4.1. Consumers in Indonesia showed the least digital trust levels amongst the countries with a score of 1.8.

Singapore, which would be expected to have a high trust score due to their advanced fraud management systems, lagged due to a low tolerance for fraud and perceptions that firms do not handle post-fraud experiences well.

Its trust score for financial institutions hit 3.10. It gave lower scores for the telecommunication sector with 1.97, and retailers with 1.84.

"While Singapore has high levels of enrolment and utilisation of digital banking accounts, and fraud rates are generally low to medium and comparable with Mid-Streamers, the island-state’s DTI has been heavily weighed down due to customers’ dissatisfaction in how banks have responded to fraud incidents," the report said.

Banks said they have higher confidence in fraud detection and response, due to better predictive analytics.

Meanwhile, the study also found out that consumers have the highest trust towards the government. About 75.5% chose government agencies, compared with 51.7% on average.

DTI said, as a result, the trust of personal data protection is centred around government agencies.