Consumers Lose Confidence In Banking Sector
Anybody who has seen the news at all recently will have been aware of all the negative press which is being targeted towards the banking sector at the moment, with banks unable to offer loans to customers due to their own liquidity problems, low rates of interest for savers and many people blaming banks for the current economic situation in the UK.
This has been born through irresponsible lending practices over the past few years, whilst banking bosses still seem to manage to be paid huge bonuses for effectively failing at their jobs. It is little wonder then that consumers have an extremely low level of confidence in banks at the moment.
A new survey from Which? has revealed that around 37 per cent of the population do not trust UK banks to act in the interests of the country, more than a fifth of those surveyed don’t trust their own bank to keep their money safe and nearly 40 per cent don’t think that their bank is able to pay them the best returns on their cash.
Furthermore, a staggering 88 per cent of those interviewed believe that banks have brought these problems on themselves, through offering too many large personal loans to people who simply could not afford to repay the amount borrowed and that banks should conduct more thorough checks on potential borrowers prior to offering them a personal loan of any kind.
As far as treating customers fairly goes, only 29 per cent of individuals believe that their bank would take a sympathetic approach if a borrower was struggling to maintain their loan repayments and went to the bank for help and advice.
It may well be that consumers have found a convenient scapegoat in banks, for the current financial problems, but whether this is the case or not, banks need to improve their image and standing with customers extremely quickly, or people will end up with their life savings under the mattress and approaching less reputable lending organisations when they want a new personal loan, which will cause even more problems for both consumers and banks alike over the long term.
