Will Barclays Crisis Increase Consumer Distrust of Banks?

Tom Blackett says:

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I felt that UK bank customers - cheque book account holders - were reasonably content with the service they received from their retail banks and were prepared to put the shenanigans of the 'casino' bankers to one side. Sure, the investment bankers and traders messed up, controls were lax and ethics barely existent; but as long as the bank managed retail customers' needs with efficiency then that was OK. After all, retail banking is not a complex business: you receive deposits and you meet claims, you lend and you advise on relatively simple housekeeping matters. Then RBS's computer went down.

With Barclays seemingly at the middle of the LIBOR scam - and many other banks likely to become embroiled - the casino boys and girls are back centre stage. And with the RBS computer glitch the competence of the big banks to fulfil their most basic role is in doubt.

If retail customers cared enough there would be a rush to the door. But so low are customers' expectations, so sparse is the choice, and so difficult is it made for customers to change banks, that it seems wrong to class banks as brands at all. They have become 'anti-brands': they promise and do not deliver; they are cynical; they are entirely self-serving.

No wonder people stuff it under the mattress.

July 4, 2012 01:11 PM #