Is digital 'New normal' or 'Challenge' for banks under COVID-19?

Abstract

Purpose – to reveal prerequisites of technology-enabled banking development in Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine; to identify if digitalization was a beneficial factor in households deposits-raising during the COVID-19. Research methodology is twofold: analysis of digitalization index based on World Bank data as a premise of technology-enabled banks development; beta-coefficient analysis and descriptive statistics – for digitalization influence assessment. Findings – digitalization index analysis showed that Lithuania has a more generous benefit in terms of digitalization. Poland and Ukraine follow with a slight gap. Traditional banks of analyzed countries are acting towards digitalization but at different paces. There are both digital and neobanks in Lithuania and Poland, while in Ukraine only digital banks. Analysis of Ukrainian banks deposits highlighted the fact that digital banks were in some cases more preferable for households, especially during a pandemic. Research limitations – lack of data: common digitalization indexes could not be calculated for Ukraine; differences in countries’ banking data: content and structuring criteria. Practical implications – the results could be important for policy recommendations to tackle the blind spots of banking digitalization. Originality/Value – suggested digitalization index could be utilized as a universal. Due to DESI limitations, common for EU countries, we were to create our own index and compare results with calculated by European Commission DESI values. While DESI is calculated using some specific survey data, the proposed index is using standardized data of World Bank; the results of digital and traditional banks deposits comparison could be useful for further study.