Brits Are Not Satisfied With Mortgage Lending

The latest report made by the National Customer Satisfaction Index – a British economic indicator of customer satisfaction with products and services in the UK – showed that customer satisfaction dropped in the 3rd quarter of 2009, to 72.8, out of 100 points, mainly due to customer dissatisfaction with financial services sector. The National Customer Satisfaction Index, produced by the CFI Group, is updated quarterly, and is mainly based on survey data that analyses various sectors of the economy. In the 3rd quarter of this year, almost all British financial sectors, including mortgage lending, retail banking, and credit card services, saw a decline in customer satisfaction, while insurance services was the only sector to demonstrate stability. From the standpoint of individual companies’ performance, the results were poor as well with only 32% improving their customer satisfaction score, while 50% declined and 18% remained unchanged. As for retail banks, overall customer satisfaction with their services fell by 1.4%, to 70 points. In the 3rd quarter of 2009, the biggest decline in customer satisfaction was demonstrated by the Royal Bank of Scotland, which scored 69 (a 3% fall); HBOS and Abbey, although they did not see such a sharp decline in customer satisfaction, still scored lower. HSBC, according to the National Customer Satisfaction Index, is still regarded by most customers as the largest retail bank, yet smaller lenders have better customer satisfaction scores than HSBC. As for customer satisfaction in terms of mortgage lending, it experienced the sharpest decline of all other financial services sectors. Overall level of customer satisfaction with mortgage in the UK stood at 69 points, a 1.4% fall from the previous index. Lender, that customers are most satisfied with, is Nationwide, which scored 74 (a 4% fall); the only UK bank that demonstrated improvements in the level of customer satisfaction was Abbey – it rose as much as 8%, to 70 points.