Confidence in banking industry bouncing back: Ernst & Young survey

SINGAPORE – After a number of years of sharp decline, confidence in the banking industry is bouncing back, a survey by Ernst & Young shows.

The biennial study covered more than 32,000 banking customers in 43 countries worldwide. More than 400 respondents in Singapore took part in the survey.

Twenty-six per cent of those surveyed said they were more confident about the banking industry, while 61 per cent reported no change, and 12 per cent said their confidence had decreased. In contrast, in the previous Ernst & Young survey in 2012, 40 per cent of customers in Singapore said their confidence in the banking industry fell during the past year, while 36 per cent reported no change in confidence.

The majority of Singapore customers, like those in Asia Pacific, have moderate to complete trust in their primary financial services provider, the bank in which the customer has most deposits and investments.

Fifty per cent of the respondents in Singapore closed their bank accounts in the past 12 months after having a negative experience with a bank. So besides customer service and experience being important, the survey also showed that Singapore customers are more likely to engage their banks if their banks are able to help them find ways to save money and also customise solutions to fit their needs.

Previous experience with financial services providers and access to branches and banking services were the top two reasons for opening or closing accounts in Singapore.

Mr Liew Nam Soon, financial services markets leader for ASEAN at Ernst & Young Advisory, said: “When we look back at the survey we did two years ago, clearly what has changed is that the emphasis on customer experience (and) the ability to get tailored advisory services from the banks have now scored very highly in the customer’s response, and it is probably a reflection of the continuing maturity of our financial services sector.

“The competitive nature of our market place as well as the sophistication of the customers in Singapore and their financial literacy probably says a bit about the options that are available for them as well, which implies that all the banks have to compete quite hard in order to get a deeper wallet share.”

The survey also showed that while the traditional bricks-and-mortar bank branches and ATMs are more preferred by customers in Singapore, digital channels are quickly catching up.

Mr Liew said: “While Singapore has a very high adoption rate when it comes to usage of mobile technologies and tablets, the branch still features very highly in the response.

“Going forward, we should expect to see, as the level of sophistication of financial capabilities that get delivered through the mobile platform gets more mature, more customers will start to perform their banking transaction and get advice through (the) mobile platform.”

Channel NewsAsia