Well, here's a shocker: Consumer trust in banks is very low. This news flash comes from platform vendor S1, which in a recent survey of European and U.S. consumers found that only nine percent are currently confident in financial institutions. The firm says these results should spark a substantial change in how banks manage relationships, particularly pertaining to channel strategy, as automated convenience and the Internet take a back seat to basic demonstrations of solvency and security.
The survey found that when it comes to what attributes consumers value most in a financial institution, financial stability (65 percent) and trust (54 percent) outpaced convenience, which came in at about 50 percent. And when asked for their preference in interacting with banks, 41 percent of consumers said “in person at a branch,” with “a combination of in person and online” coming in at 28 percent and “online only” coming in at 23 percent.
In a statement, Mark Moore, vp of marketing for S1 Enterprise, said banking relationships are “at a crossroads,” but the more important issue facing banks is the pressure to find new ways to combat the loss of trust and rebuild relationships, a trend that could lead to a larger focus on personalized interaction.
