{"id":666297,"date":"2026-10-27T00:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666297\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:08:26","slug":"only-3-of-irish-consumers-invest-new-banking-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666297\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 3% of Irish consumers invest, new banking survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ONLY 3% OF Irish people invest their money, according to a banking survey launched by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Consumer Sentiment Banking Survey, conducted by Ipsos Behaviour and Attitudes for the Department of Finance, interviewed 1,510 adults aged 18 and over between July and August 2025<\/p>\n<p>It comes ahead of the introduction of the new<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/new-investment-scheme-threshold-contribution-limit-savings-7183810-Oct2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00a0Investment Account scheme <\/a>next July, which allows investments of up to\u00a0\u20ac12,000.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme will have no minimum contribution and a tax-free threshold of \u20ac50,000.<\/p>\n<p>The survey revealed that only 5% of men and 2% of women hold investment accounts, while just 1% of respondents own cryptocurrency products.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the launch of the survey, Harris said that investing can feel complex and that the new investment scheme will \u201cmake investing simpler and more accessible\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a nation of savers, but far too few people see investing as an option open to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many, investing feels too complicated, too expensive or simply out of reach. I want to change that<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople should not need substantial savings or specialist knowledge just to consider putting money aside for their longer-term future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition parties have criticised the scheme following Budget 2027, with Labour\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/opposition-reaction-the-budget-7184547-Oct2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jed Nash <\/a>arguing it is \u201cfor those who already have a few bob in the bank, who can afford to save thousands of euros, and where their money is burning a hole in their pockets\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the number of consumers using Revolut as their main account has risen from 3% to 6%, while overall app usage increased from 43% to 48% over the past year.<\/p>\n<p>Among those aged 55\u201364, usage saw a particularly notable rise, climbing from 22% last year.<\/p>\n<p>However, traditional banks continue to dominate as the main banking provider, with 86% of respondents naming AIB, Bank of Ireland or PTSB as their primary provider.<\/p>\n<p>The survey also examined the growing use of artificial intelligence in financial services, finding that 21% of participants had turned to AI for financial information or advice.<\/p>\n<p>Both the use of and trust in AI were lower among older age groups.<\/p>\n<p>Harris said it is \u201cinteresting to note that a consumer\u2019s age profile seems to be a big factor in both AI usage and trust\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ONLY 3% OF Irish people invest their money, according to a banking survey launched by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2605,72,176,61,975,60,2733,2987,70],"class_list":["post-666297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-banking","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-investment","tag-ireland","tag-october","tag-savings","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}