Thousands of Customers Move Their Money from Corporate Banks

[Dan Clore]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/22/banking-thousands-customers-switch-accounts
Banking: thousands of customers switch their accounts out of the big five
Building societies, credit unions and co-operatives benefit as anger
over scandals turns to action
by Heather Stewart
The Observer, Saturday 22 December 2012 15.05 EST

Consumers are deserting major high-street banks in unprecedented numbers
after a slew of revelations about unethical behaviour, according to data
from the Move Your Money campaign.

Building societies, credit unions and co-operatives have all reported a
sharp rise in new business over the past 12 months as the reputation of
the major banks has taken a hammering.

Laura Willoughby, Move Your Money's chief executive, said: "Anger with
the banks is turning into action. This year British banks have been
exposed for exploiting their customers, starving the economy of credit
and flouting the law."

Credit unions � small, usually locally based savings groups � have
attracted almost 20,000 new accounts in the past six months, according
to Move Your Money, while ethical banks Triodos, Ecology and the Charity
Bank have all reported a jump in customers.

Building societies saw 78,000 customers sign up for savings accounts in
the third quarter alone after Barclays was implicated in the
Libor-fixing scandal, which has spread to engulf several other banks.

"Customers are clearly far more interested now in the way financial
services companies are run," said a spokeswoman for the Building
Societies Association. "Putting that into the mix alongside interest
rates and service has been positive for mutuals like building societies."

The Co-operative bank, which will treble the size of its network next
year when it takes over 632 Lloyds branches, has seen the number of
people switching to its current accounts jump by 43% over the past year.

Move Your Money urges savers to shift their accounts from the so-called
big five � Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS � to
ethical or mutually owned alternatives.

The government has sought to boost competition in the banking market as
a way of improving the performance of the big players. Business
secretary Vince Cable said: "One of the biggest things is competition:
getting new banks in to challenge the others."

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP chairing the parliamentary commission
on banking standards, said last week: "The latest revelations of
collusion, corruption and market-rigging beggar belief".



--
Dan Clore

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