UK Consumers Won't Tolerate Financial Crime At Their Bank

UK consumer fraud attitudes

Our latest commissioned research suggests that UK banks could face a potentially catastrophic customer defection event in the wake of a money laundering scandal.

56 percent of UK respondents said they would switch banks if theirs was reported to be involved in such a scandal. The younger age groups would be most eager to swap their financial service provider after a money laundering scandal: 64 percent of 18 to 24 year-olds would switch, as would 68 percent of 25 to 34 year-olds.

There have been several high-profile money laundering scandals in the last few years, and consumers have clearly had enough. This raises the stakes for banks and means that powerful controls are more crucial than ever. You can read more about all the UK survey results in our Digital Consumer Banking and Fraud Survey - UK Results Ebook

Banks also have the opportunity to improve fraud response efforts

Our survey also showed that some work may need to be done by banks to improve how consumers perceive the support offered in fraud cases.

While over half of survey respondents think it's fair how banks deal with customers who have been victims of fraud on their credit or debit cards, this still leaves 16 million cardholders who don't know whether current measures are fair or believe they are unfair. This suggests there could actually be a strong marketing opportunity for those institutions that want to highlight how well they look after fraud victims.

Millennials are the least impressed

Those in the Millennials generation - aged 25-34 - appear to be the least impressed with banks' current approaches to fraud. When asked about account takeover, 19 percent thought banks were not fair. And when considering cases of customers being tricked into sending money to fraudsters, 21 percent of them thought measures were not fair.

Curiously, respondents were not as worried about being tricked into sending payments to criminals as they were about other types of fraud. Only 6 percent of all those surveyed were most worried about being scammed, despite the fact that £355.3 million was lost to these scams in the first half of 2021.

The rise of scams during the pandemic has been truly frightening. This is creating a challenge for banks, which need to walk the line between stopping scams and enabling a smooth customer experience during financial transactions.

Whilst a relatively low number of customers in our survey said they thought banks' management of fraud cases was unfair, a much higher proportion did not know if banks were fair. This may signal an opportunity for some positive marketing by those institutions that are already investing in the latest analytics to detect scams.

FICO surveyed 1,000 UK consumers aged 18 to 85 as part of a global survey in late 2021. The survey also included consumers in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand and the USA.

If you would like to read more about the global results, have a look at the following ebook: Digital Consumer Banking and Fraud Survey - Global Results

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