PINcept.com: In Banks We Mistrust

In Banks We Mistrust - New Aite Report

A New Report From Aite Group

In Banks We Mistrust: Something the French, Americans and British Agree Upon

Engendering a minimum level of consumer trust is insufficient for banks to drive referrals or customers' intention to grow their relationships with their bank.

Boston, MA, October 21, 2009 – A new report, issued jointly by Aite Group, LLC and Plenitudes Prospective & Management, explores the degree of trust that U.S., U.K. and French consumers have in the financial institutions with which they do business.

Based on a February 2009 survey of 1,222 consumers in the United States, United Kingdom and France, the report identifies drivers of consumer trust in banks, and how trust levels impact consumers' relationships with their banks.

Though the level of consumer trust in banks varies across countries, few consumers in the U.S., U.K. or France have a high degree of trust of banks in general. Consumers are more forgiving of their primary bank, however, with 22% of U.S. consumers expressing a great deal of trust in their primary bank, compared to only 4% of U.S. consumers expressing a great deal of trust in banks in general.

And despite the financial crisis in the United States, Americans still have a higher level of trust in their banks than British or French consumers have in theirs. In order to assess the level of trust consumers have in banks, Aite Group and Plenitudes define four dimensions of trust - symbolic, institutional, relationship and cognitive - and find that the most valuable trust dimension is the one consumers generally view to be the weakest.

"High levels of trust drive both referral behavior and future purchase intention," says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. "Engendering a minimum level of consumer trust is insufficient for banks to drive referral behavior or customers' intention to grow their relationships with their bank. While cognitive trust attributes - like competency and efficiency - are considered the most important drivers of trust by consumers in the U.S., U.K. and France, consumers in all three countries agree that these attributes do not describe their banks to the extent that other trust attributes do."

This 35-page Impact Report contains 25 figures and three tables. Clients of Aite Group's Retail Banking services can download the report by clicking on the icon to the right.