RBS Named Worst UK Bank for Second Year Running

RBS has come last in a CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) survey with only 46% of its customers recommending their bank to friends and family.

This is the second year in a row that RBS has taken last place in the survey.

The taxpayer-owned bank has seen a 3% fall in the number of customers recommending its services since the CMA survey in August of 2018.

How did the other banks fare?

On the other end of the spectrum, Metro bank and First Direct share the top spot, with 82% of their customers saying that they would recommend their services.

Five of the biggest banks in the UK followed Metro Bank and First Direct, ranging from Nationwide with an approval rating of 74%, to Santander with a rating of 61%.

TSB gained 5% on its score from last year, climbing up to 56%. However, they are still yet to recover from its embarrassing IT failures in 2018, as they came in dead last for online and mobile banking - with just 63% recommending its service.

For online and mobile banking, Barclays lead the way with 86%, with First Direct, Metro Bank and Nationwide following, all with approval ratings of over 80% themselves.

Financial trouble for Metro Bank has not affected its services

Metro Bank have been named as Britain’s best current account provider despite recently being in the spotlight due to concerns with its financial stability.

It did hold the top position outright in February of this year, but has fallen one percentage point to share it with First Direct.

In recent times Metro Bank required an emergency cash injection due to a crisis involving its loan book. Its share price then took a tumble, and there were fears over the safety of customers’ cash as people started to queue outside of their Harrow branch to withdraw their money.

Metro Bank also topped the table for in-branch service, with 85% of customers recommending their services. Nationwide came in second place, six percentage points behind at 79%.

The bank’s chief executive, Craig Donaldson, said: “we are extremely proud to still hold the top spot for personal current account service and maintain our top two position among business customers.”

“Service and convenience are at the heart of everything we do at Metro Bank and we're thrilled that our customers can see this.”

The CMA survey

Regulators have now made the CMA survey mandatory in order to make it easier for customers to compare banking services between providers. The tables provided by the CMA will make it easier for customers to make informed decisions when switching - and the Current Account Switch Service guarantees that the switch will be made within seven days (including direct debits).

The results of the survey will be published every six months - in February and August - and will also take into account customer opinions regarding in-branch, online and mobile banking, as well as current accounts and overdrafts.

The latest set of results came from surveys taken between July 2018 and June 2019 of a total of 13,760 people.