Bitcoin Acceptance Highest in Turkey, Says ING Survey

A recent survey from ING aiming to gain better understanding of retail customers' banking and spending habits, suggests that Turkey is the country where digital currencies have the highest acceptance rate.

The ING International Survey, conducted by Ipsos between January 16, and February 2, surveyed some 14,000 consumers from 15 countries on their views and habits towards mobile banking and payment.

The results highlight the emergence of a cashless economy and an increasing use of mobile payment apps, with the Netherlands leading the way as the "most developed" mobile banking market, followed by the USA and the UK.

However, Turkey and Poland are two promising markets that currently offer the highest adoption rates of mobile payment apps, surpassing the USA, Australia and Europe.

Turkey as the future mobile banking hotspot

Among the key findings, Turkey, which currently holds the largest share of mobile banking users among Internet users (65%), is expected to be one of the fastest growing markets in terms of mobile banking and payment.

Not only is Turkey set to embrace the mobile banking era at a faster pace than the USA or the UK, the country is also home to the largest share of digital currencies enthusiasts.

While the vast majority of respondents are rather pessimistic about the future of digital currencies, 45% of respondents from Turkey believe that "digital currencies, such as bitcoin, are the future of spending online," against a slim 16% from Australia and 28% from the USA.

Turkey is followed by Italy (43%), Spain (33%), and Poland (31%).

While the media hype might have put bitcoin under the spotlight, awareness and use are still low, according to the survey.

When asked if they have used bitcoin in the past 12 months, 26% of people in Europe say they have not, and 49% say they don’t know what bitcoin is.

Once again, Turkey is home to the highest share saying they’ve used bitcoin in the past 12 months, followed jointly by the United States and Italy, then Poland and Spain.

ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services firm that serves over 48 million individuals and institutional clients in more than 40 countries.

In December 2014, ING, along with ABN Amro and Rabobank, shared their interest in blockchain technology, stating that they were all investigating on the merits of Bitcoin's blockchain for their payments systems. 

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