Banks and financial services firms face trust issue
Further proof has emerged of the generally poor reputation of the Australian financial services industry in the wake of the Royal Commission with only one bank – Bendigo and Adelaide – making it into the top 10 brands trusted by consumers.
The latest Roy Morgan Risk Monitor, released this week, reveals Bendigo and Adelaide coming in at number 10 on its Top 10 Brands by Net Trust Score analysis, which was topped by hardware chain, Bunnings followed by grocery retail chains ALDI and Woolworths and then by motoring group NRMA and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The bad news for both banks and non-bank financial services companies is that they have been included as being in industry which are more distrusted than trusted, albeit that non-bank financial services companies were less poorly regarded than by the banks themselves.
The one bright spot for financial services is that insurance companies ranked at number four in terms of being more trusted than distrusted.
Explaining the research, Roy Morgan chief executive, Michele Levine said it was important to understand that distrust was no uncertainty about whether to trust or an absence of trust.
“It is something separate, something much darker and more damaging,” she said. “The key message for business is that distrust is a major risk factor which must be monitored because it leads to customer churn, loss of market share, and a plummeting share price.”
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