At the end of 2024, the BSA commissioned consumer research firm Vypr to investigate customer attitudes towards traditional passbooks and some of the alternative communication tools available, from Contactless Passbooks and Cards to Plastic Wallets and Mobile Apps.

Vypr is a Manchester (UK) based customer research set up in 2013 with the objective of helping organisations determine what their customers think need or expect. It owns and maintains a profiled proprietary community of (c85k UK) consumers who participate in online research via a smartphone application (device agnostic).   

The research highlighted:

• The continued importance of traditional passbooks when engaging with their building society. Some 8% of all customers wanted to continue to use passbooks (rising to 10% of customers +55 years of age)
• Switching from traditional passbooks may not have a significant negative impact if managed carefully, and the risk of customer switching appears low. The key is to ensure new solutions maintain the core benefits of passbooks (easy balance checking, transaction recording, branch access) while offering enhanced features and convenience.
• A clear generational and technological divide in attitudes toward passbook replacement. Younger and tech-savvy customers generally welcoming the change while older customers and those less comfortable with technology expressing more concerns.

The report also surfaces some of the concerns that people have around switching away from passbooks, with suggestions from Vypr about how these could be addressed. 

Vypr provided a presentation to BSA members in February 2025 on the research. A recording of the presentation can be found here. 

A copy of the research can be found here.

For any questions, Vypr can be contacted via email here.