Working with banks to improve consumer financial well-being
Fairbanking is a research-based charity dedicated to encouraging and helping banks to improve
the financial well-being of their customers.
Banks are increasingly seen as having a duty to act in the common good of the country. As water companies are obliged to supply water that is good for their customers, so bank products should be good for theirs. The importance of this duty has been made clear by the recent banking crisis.
The latest report, called “FairBanking Ratings – Socially Useful Banking”, offers for the very first time an analysis of core banking products - savings accounts, credit cards and current accounts - in terms of the financial well-being they can provide. This report can be downloaded here
or go to the "Current projects" pages for highlights of the latest report
The conclusions of this work are that there are some encouraging beginnings, but there is substantial and quite obvious room for improvement. A small number of products in the UK are starting to offer features that contribute meaningfully to financial well-being of customers. FairBanking’s belief is that by making this analysis available to both the consumer and the industry, banks will be encouraged to compete increasingly on product attributes that help financial well-being, rather than just headline rates.
This groundbreaking analysis is an important next step in FairBanking’s contribution, building on the conclusions of its last report “FairBanking: The road to redemption for UK banks” which took the first crucial step of looking in depth at the factors that drive financial well-being, and establishing a ‘Financial Well-being Index’. This report can be downloaded here.