Giving back is more important to driving banking consumer trust than accessibility: poll 

WHEN it comes to building banking consumer trust, accessibility to physical branches or ATMs (automated teller machines) is less important than giving back to local communities or impacting the environment and society (*see amendment note), according to results from the third annual Banking Trust Index for Singapore survey released on Monday (Feb 13).

The study was commissioned by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and conducted by Edelman Data and Intelligence from Sep 26 to Nov 27, 2022.

It surveyed 3,515 Singapore residents across 15 participating banks to measure public trust in banks in Singapore across four factors: the ability of the banks to provide banking services, integrity of the banks to be honest with customers, dependability of the banks to uphold promises, and the banks’ purpose to make an impact on society.

Customer accessibility had the least importance in contributing to the trust pillar of purpose at just 19.3 per cent – down 5.3 percentage points from the previous year. Also classified as a factor under purpose is community contribution, which served as the most important contributing factor to the purpose pillar this year at 55.5 per cent, or 9.5 percentage points above 2021’s survey results (*see amendment note).

This suggests banks could further strengthen public trust by being more forthcoming about their business values and positive contribution to the wider community, said ABS in a press statement on the latest survey results.

Areas where the industry could most improve on include transparency about mistakes, aligning with customer values, fair employment practices and positive social and environmental impact.

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This year’s survey found that 74 per cent of respondents said they had high trust in the banks, with 4 per cent of respondents with low trust. The remaining respondents are either moderate in their views, or do not have a view. 

Amendment note: This article has been amended to show that percentage scores of the trust factors, customer accessibility and community contribution, reflect the relative importance of each factor within the pillar of purpose. The scores are not comparable against pillars.