Since the adoption of “paste” in word processing its equivalent “stick” has fallen out of favour. “Sticky”, and its derivative “stickiness”, however, is now being applied in various contexts with a vague meaning of resistance to movement.
Financially speaking, if wages, prices or interest rates are sticky then they are sluggish, or very slow to react to changes in the economy.
As this article from the Guardian explains
Wages are “sticky” because most workers have six-month or year-long contracts or are in permanent positions covered by multi-year agreements. But even then they do respond to the labour market and so once the impact of the surge in unemployment flows through we are likely to see a steep fall in wages growth.
Coronavirus has destroyed wages
If account holders are sticky then they take time to move their money to another entity even though conditions might be more advantageous there. So sticky customers are the ones that you want to create as they will be reticent to move elsewhere.
Lack of financial education or understanding can also result in clients not appreciating the benefits they might make from changing provider as referred to in this Financial Times article:
A lack of curiosity and subsequent inertia make customers sticky.
AJ Bell/Hargreaves:sticky situation
And then we have the specific case of a “sticky deal” which is used to refer to a new issue that an underwriter has difficulty placing with investors owing to market conditions or to the appeal of the company itself, in other words, they have difficulty getting the securities off their hands.
In a more general context, you might hear “I can’t go to the meeting as I’m stuck with the auditors”, in other words I can’t get out of the situation. Yet again, there is a meaning of not moving or being able to move from a position.
This also is the essential signifier of the expression “a sticking point” which is a controversial issue in a discussion or negotiation which prevents the people involved from reaching an agreement or consensus as in the headline
Brexit trade deal: What are the sticking points?
BBC 18th December 2020
Finally, the Economist magazine, renowned for its plays on words, when talking about creating a more circular economy brilliantly used the headline
as a sticky problem or issue is one which is difficult to eliminate.