The psychological behaviour of users in open banking: Advancing the tri-dimensional security framework

Abstract

Despite the rapid adoption of open banking, user security behaviour remains insufficiently understood, creating critical vulnerabilities within interconnected financial ecosystems. While open banking enables secure data sharing and customer-centred financial innovation, it also increases exposure to cyber threats. Existing research has largely examined technological safeguards, regulation, and security behaviour independently, giving limited attention to how behavioural intention and multidimensional trust shape user security behaviour within open banking ecosystems. This study examines the interrelationship between multidimensional trust, behavioural intention, and user security behaviour in open banking environments. Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour and the network of trust in information systems, a mixed-methods approach was employed, combining 204 survey responses from UK open banking users with eight semi-structured interviews. The findings show that both attitude and perceived behavioural control significantly and positively predict behavioural intention, while behavioural intention strongly predicts security behaviour within the theory of planned behaviour framework. Overall trust exhibits a small but statistically significant negative moderating effect on the attitude–behavioural intention relationship. These results indicate that users’ security behaviour in open banking ecosystems is primarily driven by behavioural intention, which is shaped by favourable attitudes and perceived behavioural control. The study advances the Tri-dimensional security framework by suggesting that cyber resilience in open banking emerges from the interaction between behavioural intention and multidimensional trust, offering a more comprehensive account of security behaviour in digital financial systems.