According to Forrester’s European Banking Trust, 2023, banks in France, Italy, Spain, and the UK continue to face low levels of customer trust in 2023. The majority of banking brands in France, Italy and Spain had a ‘weak’ average customer trust score – with the UK the only country out of the four to receive a ‘moderate’ average trust score.  

When customer trust is strong, financial services firms reap financial, competitive, and reputational benefits, enabling them to expand and extend customer relationships. Key findings from Forrester’s 2023 Banking Trust Index include: 

  • Nationwide Building Society and ING Spain secured the top spot in each of their country’s respective rankings. Nationwide Building Society particularly excelled at accountability and dependability, with 82% and 72% of its customers indicating that they believe the firm exhibited those traits respectively. ING Spain ranked high for introducing new functionality to help customers better manage their finances.  
  • Lack of dependability and empathy remains a problem. Being dependable and empathetic are the most important levers of trust, however most European banks continue to fail their customers in this area. Lack of empathy poses immediate concerns as consumers grapple with financial challenges stemming from persistent levels of inflation and rising interest rates.  
  • Trust drives revenue-generating behaviours. The research reveals that customers who have high levels of trust in their bank are more likely to open another account with that bank, recommend it to a friend or family member, and prefer that bank over its competitors. For example, 93% of French banking customers with high levels of trust in their primary bank say they would recommend it to their friends and family, compared to just 34% of those with low levels of trust. 

To benchmark customer trust in their banks, Forrester surveyed 2,429 French online adults, 2,133 Italian online adults, 2,406 Spanish online adults, and 2,448 online adults in the UK at 25 European banking brands.  

Additional information can be found here for reference. To access this research or arrange an interview with a Forrester analyst, please contact press@forrester.com.