Consumers Confident in Their Bank -- Not so certain, however, about your bank

July 30, 2008:   According to last month's Gallup survey, consumer confidence in banks fell to the lowest level since 1991:  Just 32% of Americans say they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in U.S. banks.

According to Morpace Inc., however, surveys such as the Gallup Poll are misleading because they don't ask consumers how they feel about their own bank.  

Morpace found, in a nationally representative sample, a full 87% of consumers are confident in the financial strength of their primary personal bank. Also, 79% of small business owners reported that they too are confident in the financial strength of their personal bank, which is usually the same as their business bank.

Only 2% of consumers and small business owners say that they are not confident in their primary bank.

Confidence in consumers' and small businesses' primary bank is unexpectedly high given the challenges faced by banks in recent months. "This finding gives some breathing room to banks, who have had a lot of bad news to release in recent quarters," said Tom Hartley, Vice President of Customer Loyalty at Morpace. "It also shows that the public is able to tell the difference between news about challenges in the financial sector and the fundamental strength of their primary bank."

"It is important to recognize that consumers and small business owners can have very different opinions about their own bank than they have of banks as a general institution. Our survey shows that the confidence of consumers in their own bank is high, with only slight differences in confidence across age, sex, marital status, and household income," according to Hartley.

Morpace Inc., a market research company originally founded in 1941, conducted the nationally representative survey of 985 consumers and 104 small business owners who were asked "How confident are you in the financial strength of your primary personal bank?"

Source: Morpace Inc.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108229/Confidence-Banks-Down-Sharply.aspx

Posted by Mark Rodrigues at 7/30/2008 11:17 AM
Categories: Management
 

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