In Europe, Service and Savings Come First, While Trust in Banks Shrinks

Customers’ changing relationship with banks is made very clear in the second European Credit Risk Survey conducted by FICO and Efma and released today. In fact, the strongest cross-national agreement in the whole survey came when the credit risk managers surveyed said what matters most to customers today.

According to respondents, consumers across Europe are most concerned with service (79 percent see this as true for some or most customers) and building their savings (also 79%). At the same time, customers are more reluctant to secure or use unsecured credit, say risk managers.

Respondents were split on the issue of bank trust. Across Europe, slightly more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that customers are more likely to mistrust the bank. There were regional differences in this. In the UK, 50% more respondents (77 percent in all) said customers were more likely to mistrust the bank.

Do UK consumers really feel the nation’s banks are that shifty? Or are UK and Irish lenders just more sensitive to the toll taken by the recession and bank bailouts?