Digital Governance In Public Financial Services: Assessing The Effects Of Fintech Service Quality And Institutional Trust On Citizen Behavioural Intention

Abstract

Citizens' interactions with financial services and financial service institutions have been transformed with the digitisation of financial services. This study aims to examine how perceived quality and trust influence Customers Attitude & Behaviour toward FinTech-enabled financial services. The proposed framework conceptualizes Perceived Quality through seven dimensions, namely Convenience, Reliability, Assurance and Security, Website Aesthetics, Responsiveness, Easy to Use, and Perceived Usefulness, while Trust is represented by Authentication, Confidentiality, Privacy Protection, Digital Financial Integrity, Brand Image, and User Familiarity. Primary data were collected from 150 users of FinTech-enabled financial services using a structured questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Reliability results showed very high internal consistencies of the constructs, namely Perceived Quality (α = 0.942), Trust (α = 0.935), and Customers Attitude & Behaviour (α = 0.958). The regression analysis showed that the dimensions found were significant in explaining the variance in both Perceived Quality and Trust. However, SEM also resulted in significant positive relationships between Perceived Quality and Customers Attitude & Behaviour (β = 0.482 with a p-value < 0.001) and between Trust and Customers Attitude & Behaviour (β = 0.426 with a p-value < 0.001). The results confirm that page 5 (perceived quality of FinTech services) as well as page 12 (users' trust) are key factors contributing to a favourable attitude and behavioural reaction from users in relation to FinTech-based financial services. The study offers insights for financial institutions, FinTech vendors, policy makers, and behavioural scientists in service design and operation that enhance the quality of services, security, confidence in services and their transparency and usability for customers.