It must be tough to be an Irish banker. It won’t be long until we’re 20 years since the financial crash but the big banks here still seem to be a way from clawing back their reputations that were, rightfully, shredded by the crisis.
This year’s Reputation Index, which tracks the reputation among the public of Ireland’s biggest companies, found AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB all languishing at 70th place or below, while arguably their biggest rival – Revolut – was way ahead in 15th place. And that was despite the myriad of customer service issues the neobank has had to deal with.
Given that background, it is notable that the just published annual report from the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB) – set up to help rebuild public trust in the banks – show what it calls a “notable” improvement in how the general population views the banks.
According to the board, public trust in retail banking has entered positive territory for the first time in 2021. That’s good news for the banks, and probably welcome progress for society at large. Broadly speaking, it helps if the nation believes its big institutions – and retail banks definitely fall into that category – are fundamentally doing their best for them.
But one couldn’t help but notice that on the day the board announced this improvement in trust, Bank of Ireland customers were, again, having issues with the lender’s online banking services.
A customer’s ability to access their funds – be it arranging transfers or just checking their account, never mind physically withdrawing cash – is a fundamental tenet of trust in a bank.
Yet time and time again, the big banks don’t seem to be able to fulfil their side of this bargain. Bank of Ireland has spent well over €1 billion over the last decade overhauling its technology, yet time and again there are glitches in its customer-facing systems. Similar issues have plagued Permanent TSB and AIB.
Getting their trust levels back to being net-positive is good. But let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not as if the banks’ net approval level is +50 or something. It’s hard to dispute the Reputation Index as a more accurate barometer of where they fit into society today than the IBCB.
