If banking is the new Trump, will it ever be great again?
If you believe the headlines, trust in Australian banks is at an all-time low – but that might not actually be the case, explains Yell founding partner Nigel Roberts.
Donald Trump once famously claimed ‘I could stand in the middle of 5th’ Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters’. And he’s probably right.
Back in the day, we thought this sort of statement was ‘unusual’. The sort of bluster designed to get page impressions and column inches, but which would disappear once he had his feet under the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
How wrong we were.
Aussie consumers are a docile bunch, they’ll mainly stay where they are.
In the years I did financial services market research, I came to dread doing banking research because they were all so similar.
Almost no-one likes the banks, especially the big four.
Almost everyone likes the concept of smaller, friendlier non-banks.
No-one wants to move from their big four bank to a smaller non-bank because it is too hard / less convenient than what they have, plus smaller NBFIs are seen as less secure.
And “lower fees”, “have friendly staff” and “open more branches” are about 90% of suggestions about how to improve banks. Do people actually go to physical branches? No, not really, but they want them just in case they have to pop out during their lunch hour.
So no, I don’t see the Royal Commission announcements as having much of an impact on the existing customer side.
@Anonymous Couldn’t agree more, unfortunately, the same could be said of the supermarkets or telcos. Unremarkable brands, products and services succeeding due to consumer apathy.