Consumers Looking Local for Banking
We live in a media driven world and when the financial services industry dominated the front page last year, consumers were inundated with news about shady practices, fat bonuses and white haired rich guys that ruined the futures of millions of Americans.
As the financial services drama played out, it was evident that consumers were simply fed up. And, according to a new poll, consumers are turning their frustrations into action, moving their business away from national banks and moving it to local banks and credit unions.
The survey, conducted by Zogby Interactive from Feb. 17-19, polled 2,068 U.S. adults, finding that the banking public was unhappy with the policies and behaviors of large national banks have caused the shift.
The main findings of the survey show that:
- 37% of adults consider a "major national bank" as where they do most of their banking.
- 32% of U.S. adults say they have "considered moving some or all of (their) banking from a large national bank to a community bank or credit union because (they) are unhappy with the policies or behavior of large national banks."
- 14% have moved some of their banking in the past year from a large national bank to a community bank or credit union.
- 9% of all U.S. adults have moved some of their business from large national banks as a protest.
Before the financial rodeo occurred, the banking industry had a bad rap. Consumers constantly felt like they were being nickel and dimed over fees and other innovative ways that banks implemented to pull pennies and dollars out of family pockets and into bonus war chests.
Despite whether or not the bailouts worked, consumers seem to be taking things into their own hands.
If the feds can't fix the problem with big banks, we're just going to move our business elsewhere, so there.
Now, just imagine if there was a national push towards this movement.
Would national banks really change their practices then?
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