Consumer watchdog Which? have surveyed various UK banks and building societies for customer satisfaction by asking 20,000 members of the public about their experiences with them. Participants were asked about their current accounts, savings accounts, and mortgage providers, and many major high street banks did not come out on top. The one major bank to score the highest was Santander in 11th place, but the ‘Big Four’ all languished at the bottom of the results table.
Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which? commented on the results; “With the high street banks failing to score top marks for customer satisfaction it’s clear they still have a long way to go to restore customer trust”, and stressed a need for banks to reflect on their customers’ needs and the services they’re offering. Coming out on top was First Direct, who scored a satisfaction rating of 74. Most people cited their friendly customer service manner as one of the main reasons for this, but it’s clear the majority of Britain’s banks still have much work to do.
The peer-to-peer industry was recently reported to be worth over £2 billion in a recent study conducted by AltFi Data, demonstrating that the British public are becoming more and more open to the idea of alternative finance and investment as opposed to relying on banks for all their financial needs. Also as technology develops and the public look for more and more ways to complete transactions on their smartphones, it’s easy to see why online peer-to-peer lending platforms are gaining momentum. Liberum’s Cormac Leech has even speculated that the peer-to-peer industry in Britain “could be worth £32 billion in a decade” as it’s growing so rapidly.
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