Banks are suffering from a loss of consumer contentment.
As the credit crunch continues to bite, public opinion of banks is eroding, new research shows. A survey of almost 1,900 people compiled by Ipsos/MORI for the Press Association shows that one in four consumers now have a negative view of financial institutions, up from one in five a year ago.
People aged 35 to 44 expressed the lowest levels of satisfaction, with 32 percent looking mainly or very unfavourably on the banks. According to Ipsos Loyalty's financial services director Alistair Whitmore, this group has been hardest hit by the tightening of lending criteria and the rise in mortgage rates.
Indeed, recent research by the online broker Selftrade shows that consumers in their 40s worry more about their personal finances than other generations.
The Ipsos/MORI poll also shows that as a result of concerns over the banking system as a whole, one in ten consumers are either thinking about withdrawing their savings or moving them to another provider, or have already done so.
According to Ipsos/MORI, the last time the balance of bank satisfaction was so low was in 1994 when the UK was in the process of getting over the last recession.
