BREAKING BARRIERS: HOW TRUST SHAPES MOBILE BANKING ADOPTION IN A DIGITALLY DIVIDED METROPOLIS

With the advancement of technology, the banking industry has witnessed substantial changes, particularly in the realm of electronic financial transactions such as money transfers, utility payments, insurance premiums, mortgages, and stock trading. In Pakistan, despite the growing use of smartphones, there has been a relatively low acceptance rate of mobile applications for banking services. This study examines the market acceptability of mobile applications in Karachi, Pakistan, through a structured online survey using standard variables from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A total of 277 valid responses were collected from 300 distributed questionnaires. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. Findings reveal that while security and convenience have a minor impact on trust, factors such as responsiveness and relative advantage significantly influence it. This highlights the importance of these factors in enhancing consumer trust and satisfaction with mobile banking services in Pakistan. Although mobile banking has been available for some time in Pakistan, there is a lack of research focusing on the application of PLS-SEM to evaluate young users' satisfaction as mobile banking customers. This study has addressed this gap by providing valuable strategic insights for banks to design mobile banking services that enhance customer satisfaction.