NatWest voted most trusted bank despite IT problems that locked 7.5m customers out of their accounts
NatWest has been voted Britain’s ‘most trusted high street bank’, despite an IT glitch which left customers locked out of their accounts for several days occurring twice in a year.
The bank was awarded the accolade following an annual survey of 20,000 savers and borrowers for the personal finance magazine, Moneywise.
It comes just 24 hours after the resignation of Stephen Hester, chief executive of NatWest’s parent company, state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland.
Difficulties: NatWest customers have had problems using the banking app in recent weeks as well as having been locked out of their accounts twice in the last year because of an IT glitchThe award came as a surprise to some given the bank is currently the subject of investigation by City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, over the IT glitches that prevented people from access money in their current accounts, paying bills or transferring money.
More... NatWest banking app fails again... and this time on payday Building society Nationwide says it is opening 1,000 new current accounts a day RBS customers unable to check accounts online with mobile app in bank's latest IT embarrassment Fight back against the banks? Your guide to switching accounts and where the best offers are - including free money Looking for a better bank? This is Money's five of the best current accounts Bored of the banks' low savings rates? See if you would get a better rate with lend-to-saveThe glitch was among several failings at the banking group which led Mr Hester to waive his 2012 bonus.
At the time of the initial IT problem last June, NatWest apologized to customers and promised to put work round the clock to put things right. But the bank’s 7.5million personal banking customers were locked out of their accounts for three days.
Business customers and 100,000 customers of Ulster Bank were also affected by the IT problems. A second IT problem in March saw NatWest customers locked out of their accounts again but this time the bank reacted quicker and was able to fix the problem within 24 hours.
Mark King, editor of Monewise magazine told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The interesting point about NatWest is that they appear to have been seen to deal with the IT problem they had well.
‘While they responded to the issue slowly, they did eventually put things right, and customers seemed to respect that.’
He added: ‘It's also the case that a reasonable number of people don't automatically link them to RBS and so see them as less impacted by the financial crisis than we might imagine.’
Of the other high street banks only Cooperative Bank received enough votes to win an award, winning the award for best current account branch service.
Mr King suggested the vote represented a ‘subtle shift’ away from the high street banks with the results suggesting customers have big questions about their professional standing.
Yorkshire Building Society was named the most trusted overall financial services provider in the poll, beating online bank First Direct which has taken the top honour for the previous three years.
Yorkshire BS customers voted for the building society because they said it looked after its customers rather than simply seeing them an opportunity to make a profit. Nationwide BS and Coventry BS were also view favourably by customers in the poll
First Direct scooped four awards: Most Trusted Credit Card Provider, Most Trusted Mortgage Provider, and Best Current Account for both call centre service and online service.
Nationwide won two awards: Most Trusted Travel Insurance Provider and Most Consistent Financial Provider.
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First Direct pays £100 to new customers who switch to its First Account. On top of that, the bank is so confident in its customer service that it will give you a further £100 if you chose to close the account within the first 12 months.
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Read our switching banks guide for step-by step advice on switching your current account.By Amy Andrew