Best reputations in retail banking are for mutual and challenger brands
The RepTrak survey is the result of more than 1200 interviews with the UK general public (in the first quarter of 2016 ) by the Reputation Institute.
RepTrak measures a company’s ability to deliver on stakeholder expectations on the seven key rational dimensions of reputation: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.
Companies are ranked on a score from 0-100 based on their overall reputation, and are grouped as Excellent ( 80+), Strong ( 70-79 ), Average ( 60-69 ), Weak ( 40-59 ) or Poor (Below 40 ).
Nationwide was the only organisation to reach the Strong level, while Barclays, TSB, Lloyds and RBS were all measured as Weak.
Kasper Ulf Nielsen, executive partner at Reputation Institute, said: “Halifax and NatWest’s focus on consumer fairness appears to have had a stronger impact on reputation than the more corporate messages adopted by the likes of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
“It is evident that those most clearly associated with the financial crisis find it hard to shake off their bad reputations, while mutual and new, disruptive entrants to the market are performing the strongest.”
Challenger bank new-comers to the ranking Virgin Money and Metro Bank made a strong entrance, with Virgin Money ranking second and Metro Bank fifth.
Sixty to 72% of the UK general public claimed they are either ‘neutral or uncertain’ about what retail banks are doing to address their reputations in dimensions like products & services, governance and citizenship.
Nielsen added: “This absence of knowledge presents the sector with a continued reputation risk. Unless banks communicate their corporate story more clearly and compellingly, they will remain open to reputation damage.”
The 2016 rankings for retail banks operating in the UK stand as below:
Rank | Company | 2016 RepTrak® score |
1 | Nationwide Building Society | 72.4 |
2 | Virgin Money | 69.8 |
3 | Santander | 67.4 |
4 | Halifax | 67.3 |
5 | Metro Bank | 66.6 |
6 | NatWest | 65.1 |
7 | The Co-op Bank | 62.4 |
8 | HSBC | 62.1 |
9 | Barclays | 59.8 |
10 | TSB Banking Group | 59.7 |
11 | Lloyds Banking Group | 57.3 |
12 | RBS | 49.3 |

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