Britons Won't Bail on Banks Because of Apathy Not Because They Trust Them, says PwC

Despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of UK bank customers do not actually trust their lender, most are too apathetic to switch, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

PwC's report "How financial services lost its mojo – and how to regain it", found that while just 32% of people trust their retail banks, only 11% have changed their current account provider in the last year.

George Stylianides, financial services risk and regulation leader at PwC, said that it is in a bank's best interest to recapture the interest of their disaffected customers.

"Tackling this apathy must be an over-riding priority for all financial services companies," he said.

"Having a customer base that is both unresponsive and potentially volatile is the worst possible state of affairs for existing financial services providers."

PwC's report was based on a survey of over 2000 people across the UK. It also revealed that although almost one in two people (49%) believe regulation of the financial services sector has been strengthened in the wake of the crisis, a greater proportion (57%) do not believe the reforms that have been implemented are sufficient to ensure that history will not repeat itself.

PwC said a sense of apathy among customers pervaded the survey findings, with generally low scores on the vast majority of questions and the combination of low trust scores and inertia.

Styliandes added: "Those who don't change now, and those who don't make the right changes, risk going further down the road where the people they are trying to reach have stopped listening and will only pay attention again when something genuinely different comes along."