Although digital usage in banking around the globe has continued to grow, consumers are moving towards the digital channels of traditional players, rather than the digital-only challengers who have enjoyed market attention and consumer interest over the past few years. This is one of the top-line findings of RFi Group's half-yearly Global Digital Banking Report for H2 2017, which shows that the proportion of consumers using digital channels rose from 58 per cent in the first half of 2017 to 68 per cent in the six months to December 2017.(This study, from banking analytics firm RFi, used online interviews with over 1,000 "banked" consumers in each of ten markets between October and November 2017. Markets covered are Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Singapore, UK and US.)While consumers showed strong interest in digital-only banks in previous studies, global appetite for digital-only providers fell from 74 per cent in H1 last year to 63 per cent in H2, and appetite for a digital-only main bank has also dropped from 50 per cent to 44 per cent, RFi said."The findings suggest that traditional banks which continue to 'up their game' in engaging consumers digitally will likely be the ones to benefit in the near future," said Charles Green, CEO of RFi Group.In Australia, consumers' comfort level with a digital-only provider followed a similar trend:  whereas in H1 2017, 68 per cent said they were 'comfortable with digital-only providers', by the end of the year only 53 per cent had the same view.Another advantage that traditional banks currently have is their perceived reliability when it comes to private data, with the study showing that trust is the "gold currency" of the traditional banking player.Banks were found to be the most trusted organisations - across industry - for holding and maintaining privacy and security of personal information globally, and this rose from 31 per cent globally in H1 to 42 per cent in H2.The implications of the RFi study have particular resonance for Australia. "This is critical for Open Banking, [as it] means that the initiative could be an opportunity for banks to effectively own the ecosystem, as opposed to levelling the playing field as regulators had potentially intended," Shields said.The findings of the study also go on to show which digital features are worth focusing on for financial institutions. "In Australia, viewing your balance without logging in and a fingerprint login were among two of the most popular features across digital channels for consumers. On a global basis, P2P payments usage has increased by 10 per cent over the last six months, which is the most out of all tasks performed via digital channels," he said.The RFi study was largely run before details of the upcoming Royal Commission had been announced, nor had other major legislation come into play, so there may be some variation in the next RFi report on consumer attitudes to the banking sector.