Clients Seeking Redress and its Influence on Relationship Quality Dimensions: A South African Banking Fraud Perspective

Despite the rise in digital banking fraud incidents in South Africa and its influence on banking client relationships, there are limited studies conducted in South Africa that consider how seeking redress influences relationship quality between banks and clients who have encountered banking fraud. Seeking redress allows clients to voice their complaints and improves the quality of their relationship with the bank. Clients who seek redress when they have encountered banking fraud provide banks with the opportunity to correct the mistake and prevent re-occurrences of fraudulent transactions in clients' bank accounts. This study investigates the influence of seeking redress on relationship quality dimensions, based on the perceptions of banking clients in South Africa. A quantitative research methodology was adopted, and an online questionnaire was used to sample 399 South African bank clients who had previously been affected by fraud. The study used statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the relationships between seeking redress and relationship quality dimensions. The results show that seeking redress has a significant impact on relationship quality dimensions, such as satisfaction and loyalty. Banks should thus encourage banking clients who have encountered banking fraud to seek redress to improve the satisfaction and loyalty of banking clients. The implications are that banks need a functioning complaint management system to receive fraud complaints and provide satisfactory responses to their clients. The results also showed that seeking redress and satisfaction does not directly influence loyalty.