consumer trust in banking relationships in europe
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International Journal of Bank MarketingConsumer trust in banking relationships in EuropeRaija Anneli Järvinen
Article information:To cite this document:Raija Anneli Järvinen , (2014),"Consumer trust in banking relationships in Europe", International Journal ofBank Marketing, Vol. 32 Iss 6 pp. 551 - 566Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-08-2013-0086
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Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:Dr Robert Hurley, Robert Hurley, Xue Gong, Adeela Waqar, (2014),"Understanding the loss of trust inlarge banks", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 32 Iss 5 pp. 348-366 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-01-2014-0003Katherine Tyler, Mark Patton, Marco Mongiello, Derek Meyer, Katherine Tyler, Edmund Stanley, (2007),"Therole of trust in financial services business relationships", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 21 Iss 5 pp.334-344W.B. Seal, (1998),"Relationship banking and the management of organisational trust", International Journalof Bank Marketing, Vol. 16 Iss 3 pp. 102-107
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Consumer trust in bankingrelationships in Europe
Raija Anneli JarvinenNational Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of consumer trust in the bankingsector on the basis of the earlier literature and to compare consumer trust in banking and distinctbanking services in 29 European countries in order to find out if there are deviations in consumer trustin banks at the organisational level, and at a service level, and between distinct services and betweenvarious countries.Design/methodology/approach – The study employs a survey gathered in 2012 in 29 Europeancountries containing 41,308 consumer assessments concerning banking services. The data areanalysed by using SPSS-statistical software.Findings – The study reveals deviations between various banking services and company-levelresults regarding consumers’ trust in their banking relationships. Consumer trust is the highest inbanking accounts and the lowest in investments and pensions. The study also highlights deviationsin consumer trust between European countries, and identifies countries with low, medium and hightrust in banking and in distinct banking services.Research limitations/implications – The culture and well-being of a nation may affect inconsumer trust in general. The data are bound to certain limitations, its formula is decided atEuropean Commission level.Practical implications – Low trust may indicate serious problems in the markets and it shouldbe a signal to bank managers to take actions, e.g. by reducing the levels of perceived risk inhigh-complexity banking services, launching simpler products, present service offerings in a morecustomer-oriented way, applying behavioural perspectives in relationships with consumers, encourageon-going behavioural loyalty, and maintaining customer service at high priority. Low-trust consumershave to be approached with a different strategy than those with high trust.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on trust by defining the content ofconsumer trust in the banking context. The empirical results of consumer trust in banking in29 European markets at country level and at banking service level increase knowledge of trust asexperienced by consumers. They reveal that trust is a service-specific phenomenon showing that thedegree of consumer trust varies depending on the service in question, and there is vast deviationbetween the European countries. The highest trust in all the three banking services is experienced inMalta, Finland and Luxembourg, and the lowest in Spain. Otherwise the countries show variationacross the banking services. The results indicate also demographic deviations in trust.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Relationship, Banks, Trust
Paper type Research paper
IntroductionDuring the current financial crisis trust has been a common word in newspaperheadlines and in the speeches of political leaders and financial experts. This showsthat trust certainly has an enormous importance in economy and thus also in moneyand finance (cf. Castelfranchi and Falcone, 2010). Gritten (2011) even claims thata paradigm shift in consumer trust has taken place on a global scale because of thefinancial crisis. Namely, the crisis has brought to light the essential role of trust inbanks and financial institutions (Shim et al., 2013).
The interest towards studies concerning consumer trust has grown only recently(Yee and Yeung, 2010), even though trust is commonly considered as a necessary
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/0265-2323.htm
Received 29 August 2013Revised 29 November 2013
7 March 201419 April 2014
Accepted 5 May 2014
International Journal of BankMarketing
Vol. 32 No. 6, 2014pp. 551-566
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited0265-2323
DOI 10.1108/IJBM-08-2013-0086
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element of every business or other relationship, especially in the financial markets.More precisely, Jarvinen (1998) argues that trust is central in all long-term relationshipsat least in the financial sector, regardless of their nature. Berry (1995) even suggeststhat relationships are built on the foundation of trust and Ganesan (1994) sees trust asa necessary ingredient for long-term orientation in relationships.
Yee and Yeung (2010) summarise that most of the empirical studies on trust centreon business-to-business relationships, e.g. Sullivan and Peterson (1982). There is alsothe extensive body of literature about trust in marketing channels (e.g. Anderson andNarus, 1990; Dwyer and Oh, 1987; Ganesan, 1994; Geyskens et al., 1998; Morgan andHunt, 1994; Young and Wilkinson, 1989) but only little attention has been given to thenotion of trust in the relationships between businesses and consumers. However, recentresearch has indicated the need for a more nuanced understanding of the conceptof consumer trust, because it differs from trust between organisations. Young andWilkinson’s (1989) study, for example, confirms that personal relationships are rarelymentioned in connection of trust in interfirm relationships. The strong relationshipbetween consumer trust and purchase likelihood found by Yee and Yeung (2010)increases the importance of the topic.
Trust is discussed specifically in the context of banking and financial services, forexample, in the following studies: Coulter and Coulter (2003), Dimitriadis and Kyrezis(2008), Kantsberger and Kunz (2010), Macintosh (2009), dos Santos and Basso (2012),dos Santos and Fernandes (2008), Shim et al. (2013), and Sunikka et al. (2010). Of themCoulter and Coulter (2003) focused on trust in business-to-business context andDimitriadis and Kyrezis (2008) on technology-based channels. Kantsberger and Kunz(2010) developed a conceptual model of consumer trust connected to risks, and Shimet al. (2013) found self-reported well-being influencing consumers’ level of trust inbanks. Macintosh (2009) examined antecedents of trust, whereas dos Santos and Basso(2012) and dos Santos and Fernandes (2008) connected antecedents and consequencesof consumer trust to complaints and recoveries. Finally, Sunikka et al. (2010) showedthat trust is dependent on consumer capability in a way that the more capableconsumers are in their financial affairs, the less they trust in their banks.
Trust connected to consumer e-banking has gained interest as a research areaof its own (e.g. Chu et al., 2012; Hoehle et al., 2012; Kesharwani and Bisht, 2012;Kivijarvi et al., 2007; Kumra and Mittal, 2004; Liebana-Cabanillas et al., 2013;Munoz-Leiva et al., 2010; Yap et al., 2010; Zhao et al., 2010; Zhu and Chen, 2012).However, this piece of research mainly concentrates on trust towards electronicchannels and acceptance of internet banking as such, but does not study general trustin banks or banking services. Likewise, m-banking studies (e.g. Jiabao et al., 2014;Koenig-Lewis et al., 2010; Luo et al., 2010; Zhou, 2012) are focused on trust generatedby mobile environment.
The above findings point out the need to understand the construction of consumertrust, and to study empirically how it materialises in different markets. Yet, there isonly a limited amount of knowledge grasping these issues, e.g. Shim et al. (2013) claimthat in general too little is known about consumer trust in banks and other financialinstitutions. Following from above, this study attempts to focus on consumer trust inthe financial service context. So far, literature on trust has not made a distinctionbetween trust in banks and trust in various banking services, which is the main focusof this paper. Only the study by Dimitriadis and Kyrezis (2008) grasps trust in banksand trust in their channels separately, and their findings encourage continuingresearch also in other subfields of bank operations.
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Empirical studies of trust are usually carried out in one country, but there somecross-country examinations, like Kivijarvi et al. (2007), who compare Finnish andPortuguese internet banking users, Alsajjan and Dennis (2010) concentrate onacceptance of internet banking in UK and Saudi Arabia, and Chong et al. (2012) handlemobile banking in China and Malaysia. At the European Union (EU) level Walti (2012)has studied the impact of the financial crisis on citizens’ trust in European CentralBank (ECB) and his results suggest that trust in ECB has decreased significantly inthose countries which have experienced increasing sovereign bond yields and financialmarket turbulence. For the present, none of the studies, however, cover consumer trustin their own banks and banking services in all EU member countries.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of consumer trust in thebanking sector on the basis of the earlier literature and to compare consumer trust inbanking and distinct banking services in 29 European countries. The researchquestions are:
RQ1. Are there deviations in consumer trust in banks at the organisational level,and at a service level, and between distinct services?
RQ2. Does consumer trust in banks and banking services deviate betweenEuropean countries and in which countries trust appears as highest andlowest?
The paper is organised as follows. The next two sections present the theoreticalbackground and the framework of the study, then the data collection and methods ofanalysis are described. Thereafter, the results of the study are presented, and finally,the conclusions are drawn, the limitations are explained, and suggestions for futureresearch are given.
The construct of trustTrust as a construct has its theoretical roots in various scientific disciplines, e.g. socialpsychology, philosophy, economics, contract law and marketing research (Blomqvist,1997) and each school holds a different viewpoint on trust (Yee and Yeung, 2010).Castelfranchi and Falcone (2010) summarise three crucial concepts of trust that havebeen recognised in the related scientific literature: a mental attitude, a decision to relyupon the other, a behaviour based on intentional act of trusting.
Even within marketing discipline, there is no unique definition, nor do scholarsagree on a single model that would apply to all marketing contexts (cf. Cowles, 1997),yet their understanding of trust is based on mutually beneficial relational exchangesin the marketplace (Gundlach and Cannon, 2010; Shim et al., 2013). However, channelstudies mostly agree on a view of benevolence and honesty as two-sided butintertwined parts of the trust concept (Geyskens et al., 1998). Further, trust is linkedto co-operation and is based on satisfactory performance over time (Young andWilkinson, 1989).
The most common characteristics connected to consumer trust are honesty,reliability, fulfilment, competence, quality, credibility and benevolence (Kantsbergerand Kunz, 2010; Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). It is also a question of understanding thecognitive process that goes on in consumers’ minds when they decide whether or not totrust (Blomqvist, 1997). Trust may materialise as expectation of some sort of help thatis useful for the consumers themselves (cf. Castelfranchi and Falcone, 2010).
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Trust in the banking relationship contextTrust is a situation-specific and context-specific issue (Blomqvist, 1997, 2002;Castelfranchi and Falcone, 2010). As a consequence of this, many pieces of researchhave reported mixed findings regarding trust (cf. Coulter and Coulter, 2003).
In the banking sector, consumer trust in the entire company is of utmost importance(cf. Kantsberger and Kunz, 2010), even though the banking sector is known for itscontractual culture, which in turn refers to a common belief that the lack of trust issubstituted for with written contracts (cf. Castelfranchi and Falcone, 2010). Therefore,Sako’s (1992) typology of trust with three different levels: contractual trust, competencetrust and goodwill trust, is appropriate to consider in this context.
In banking trust is often dependent on risk (Gundlach and Cannon, 2010;Kantsberger and Kunz, 2010; Zhao et al., 2010). Especially, the risk of consumersbuying unsatisfactory banking services may affect trust in relationships negatively.Kantsberger and Kunz (2010) suggest that lack of trust arises from incidents withinthe environment and cannot be influenced neither by the banks or the consumers,and some of them originate from the behaviour and actions of banks. In theirfindings, a bank may not have the right capacities or the right quality for the consumer,or it can have selfish reasons or motivation not to act optimally in the sense of theconsumer.
Kumra and Mittal (2004) have defined trust in banking sector as feelings ofconfidence and security on the part of customers that they can have some assurancethat the company will look after them, and Grayson et al. (2008) see trust as a beliefthat an exchange partner is benevolent and honest. On their part Shim et al. (2013,p. 27) contend that trust “requires an individual to have trust that organisations arereliable, observe rules and regulations, work well, and serve the general interest”.
By summarising the discussion above this paper defines consumer trust in thebanking context as follows: consumer trust in banks and in banking services is basedon consumer experience and is dependent on the ability of banks to behave in a reliableway, observe rules and regulations, work well and serve the general interest.In addition, it is important that a bank will keep its word, is committed to itsobligations in the relationship and is sincere (cf. Casielles et al., 2005). In bankingdistrust among consumers can arise from incidents concerning the society, the banksand the consumers themselves, but written contracts as such are not considerednotably important in creating trust.
Figure 1 depict the framework of the study. It assumes, concurring withCastelfranchi and Falcone (2010) that trust is a dynamic phenomenon that changesover time along with the relationship at hand and with increasing experience. On hispart, Storbacka (1994, p. 2) suggests that consumer relationships with banks are “likelyto contain certain frequency of interactions, the interactions are regular and they havebeen going on for a longer period of time [y] The relationships differ in length,intensity, business volume, etc.”, whereas Berry and Parasuraman (1991) emphasiserelationship building that manifests above all in trust.
Consumer trust is influenced by consumers themselves, i.e. their demographic andhome country. For example, the studies by Coulter and Coulter (2003) and Sunikka et al.(2010) even suggest that the more capable the consumers are the less they tend to trustin their banking relationships. In addition, the circumstances of the banking sector inconsumers’ home countries are meaningful according to Shim et al. (2013). They arguethat the amount of consumer trust in a nation’s banks will largely determine the overallwell-being of the nation. This refers to welfare state models, the best-known of them
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developed by Esping-Andersen (1990), which classifies European countries as liberal,corporatist-statist and social democratic. On the other hand, Trumbull (2006) dividesnational consumption into three regimes: market, corporatist and statist, andBjornskov (2006) measures generalised trust at nation level. However, there are nostudies rating European countries in relation to consumers’ trust in banks.
Data collection and methods of analysisThe study employs EU-scoreboard data, a so called market monitoring survey. The aimof the survey is to assess consumer experiences and the perceived conditions of theconsumer markets through an annual survey covering the 27 EU Member States, plusNorway and Iceland. The interviews were conducted by telephone between March andMay 2012 on a sample of consumers with recent experience of banking services. Thedata are quantitative in their nature including about 500 randomly selected respondentsin each country (250 for Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg). The respondents were askedto indicate the strength of their trust by using a scale between 0 and 10 (EuropeanCommission, 2012). The individual data were gathered by the Directorate-General forHealth and Consumers of the European Commission DG SANCO.
This study covers 41,308 consumer assessments concerning three banking andbanking services. It concentrates on consumer trust, which measures the extent towhich consumer, in their experiences, trust in their banking relationships and services.More specifically, the study covers the consumer experience of the following bankingservices:
. bank accounts: current accounts and debit cards;
. loans and credits: loans, banking-credit, credit cards, store cards, consumercredit, and revolving credit; and
. investments and pensions: banking investments, private pensions and securities,packaged investments, portfolio and fund management, private personalpensions, stock broking and derivatives.
The strength of trust in banking services is analysed by using SPSS-statisticalsoftware. First the trust towards banks and then each banking service are analysed
Banking Services
- Service X1
- Service X2
- Service X3
Consumertrust
Consumerexperience
Consumer-specificvariables
- demographic- home country
Bank
Figure 1.Framework of consumer
trust in banking andbanking services
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separately on a country basis by using variance and correlation analysis. The variablesare tested by using a One-Way ANOVA, and Z tests.
The sample characteristics of the 41,308 assessments can be summarised as follows.In total, 47 per cent were men, and 53 per cent women. The age groups of the sampleshow that 25 per cent represented young consumers (age 18-34), 45 per cent middle-aged(age 35-54), and 30 per cent of the older consumer group (age 55 or over). Education levelwas counted by years spent on education, because there are still variations in educationsystems between European countries in spite of the harmonisation process led by theEuropean Commission. Thus, 14 per cent of the sample consists of consumers witho16 years education, 32 per cent of consumers with 16-19 years of education, 49 per centof consumers with more than 20 years of education, and 5 per cent of consumers whowere presently still studying.
ResultsIt is especially interesting to study trust in the context of banking services. Namely, theEU-level results reveal that the mean in all the three banking services lies below thatof the average service level (6, 7) (for more, see European Commission, 2012). Thus,consumer trust appears to be lower towards banking services than towards otherservices.
The country-level means and standard deviations of consumer trust in banks arepresented in Table I. The table shows that consumer trust towards banking is thehighest in Malta (mean value 8.05), where also the standard deviation between therespondents is the lowest (1.9). High trust is also experienced in Finland (7.55),Luxembourg (7.46), Estonia (7.31), and Germany (7.20).
Table I confirms that consumer trust is the lowest in Spain (4.85), Iceland (5.25),Portugal (5.42), Ireland (5.44), and Italy (5.49). A low level of trust is also displayed inBulgaria (5.58), Hungary (5.79), Romania (5.90), and Poland (5.92). The countries with alow level of consumer trust level also seem to show above average standard deviation.Table I also reveals that within the Eurozone trust towards banks is higher (6.32) thanin non-Eurozone countries (6.22). This is an unexpected result, because there have beenrumours of collapsing trust in the Euro since 2011.
In Table II the countries are divided into three groups: countries where the level ofconsumers’ trust towards their banks is low, countries where the trust is at a mediumlevel and countries where the trust is at a high level. At the lowest level are theover-indebted European countries, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spaintogether with some East European countries, such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland andRomania. The highest trust level is in turn displayed in three Scandinavian countries,namely Finland, Norway and Denmark, and in some Continental countries such asAustria, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. In addition, from the viewpoint ofconsumer trust, banks are doing well also in Malta, Estonia and Latvia.
In Table III the three banking services are compared on a country basis. It showsthat consumer trust is the highest in traditional bank accounts (6.51), and the lowest ininvestments and pensions (5.93), whereas mean values for loans and credits (6.41)locate close to those for bank accounts. The country-level mean values for trust differdepending on the service in question, e.g. Irish consumers have very low trust in bankaccounts (4.78), and considerably higher trust in loans and credits (6.18), whereasSwedish consumers have exceptionally low trust in investments and pensions (5.56)compared to the other two service categories. Also in Belgium, Greece and Slovakiaconsumer trust varies highly across banking services.
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Low trust level Medium trust level High trust level
Spain (4.85) Cyprus (6.45) Malta (8.05)Iceland (5.25) Lithuania (6.45) Finland (7.55)Portugal (5.42) Sweden (6.43) Luxembourg (7.46)Ireland (5.44) Slovakia (6.35) Estonia (7.31)Italy (5.49) the Netherlands (6.23) Germany (7.20)Bulgaria (5.58) UK (6.23) Latvia (6.94)Greece (5.61) Slovenia (6.29) Norway (6.84)Hungary (5.79) Czech Republic (6.15) Denmark (6.75)Romania (5.90) Belgium (6.13) France (6.62)Poland (5.92) Austria (6.48)
Table II.Consumer trust levelsin European countries
Country Mean SD n
Austria 6.48 2.64 1,530Belgium 6.13 2.30 1,514Bulgaria 5.58 2.97 1,509Cyprus 6.45 2.44 748Czech Republic 6.15 2.83 1,554Denmark 6.75 2.52 1,523Estonia 7.31 2.45 1,535Finland 7.55 2.14 1,525France 6.62 2.34 1,543Germany 7.20 2.25 1,519Greece 5.61 3.02 1,510Hungary 5.79 3.13 1,511Iceland 5.25 2.82 755Ireland 5.44 2.95 1,567Italy 5.49 2.76 1,512Latvia 6.94 2.57 1,552Lithuania 6.45 2.75 1,546Luxembourg 7.46 2.03 755Malta 8.05 1.90 752the Netherlands 6.23 2.07 1,522Norway 6.84 2.39 1,521Poland 5.92 2.82 1,554Portugal 5.42 2.78 1,503Romania 5.90 3.09 1,599Slovakia 6.35 2.76 1,559Slovenia 6.29 2.77 1,507Spain 4.85 3.04 1,510Sweden 6.43 2.50 1,542UK 6.23 2.63 1,531Total 6.28 2.74 41,308Eurozone 6.32 2.70 23,611Non-eurozone 6.22 2.82 15,421F Sig. Z Z2
101.435 0 0.254 0.064
Table I.Consumer trust
in banking inEuropean countries
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The highest standard deviation is found in Bulgaria, Spain and Hungary in all thestudied banking services. Table III shows that only in two countries consumer trustin all the three banking services is on close to equal levels. Those countries are Franceand UK.
Table IV presents the five countries where consumer trust in each banking service isthe highest and the lowest. Interestingly, the highest trust in all the three bankingservices is experienced in Malta, Finland and Luxembourg, and the lowest in Spain.Otherwise the countries show variation according to the service, e.g. Norwegians havea high trust in bank accounts, but less trust in the other two services, whereas inGreece consumers lack trust in loans and credits, and in Iceland in bank accountsand investments and pensions. These results show that European consumers inover-indebted countries do not behave in the same way in each country, even thoughthe trust level in general is low in all of them. It is somewhat surprising that theNetherlands is among the low-trust countries with regard to pensions and investments.
Bank accounts Investments and pensions Loans and creditsCountry Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Austria 6.31 2.72 6.18 2.57 6.96 2.56Belgium 5.99 2.46 6.21 2.09 6.20 2.32Bulgaria 5.87 3.05 5.34 2.78 5.53 3.07Cyprus 6.68 2.63 6.17 1.95 6.52 2.65Czech Rep. 6.68 2.63 5.99 2.77 5.78 3.01Denmark 6.71 2.65 6.58 2.44 6.98 2.45Estonia 8.02 2.16 6.27 2.53 7.65 2.29Finland 8.14 1.82 6.78 2.21 7.72 2.14France 6.54 2.47 6.73 2.11 6.60 2.41Germany 7.32 2.32 6.71 2.41 7.57 1.91Greece 5.76 2.96 6.39 2.83 4.70 3.04Hungary 6.15 3.28 5.59 2.80 5.63 3.25Iceland 5.06 3.00 4.78 2.58 5.90 2.77Ireland 4.78 3.16 5.39 2.67 6.14 2.84Italy 4.85 2.95 5.55 2.62 6.08 2.55Latvia 7.43 2.41 6.50 2.51 6.90 2.69Lithuania 6.86 2.55 5.67 2.72 6.81 2.83Luxembourg 7.65 2.13 7.17 2.07 7.57 1.86Malta 8.56 1.62 7.38 2.25 8.19 1.57the Netherlands 6.92 1.81 5.31 2.12 6.47 1.93Norway 7.47 2.19 6.16 2.41 6.90 2.40Poland 6.02 2.86 5.39 2.61 6.34 2.91Portugal 5.06 2.92 5.73 2.54 5.48 2.82Romania 6.55 2.90 5.67 2.85 5.51 3.40Slovakia 7.11 2.57 5.48 2.62 6.48 2.84Slovenia 6.95 2.65 5.24 2.74 6.68 2.62Spain 4.68 3.18 4.94 2.82 4.92 3.11Sweden 7.19 2.45 5.56 2.43 6.54 2.33UK 6.37 2.74 6.03 2.74 6.30 2.40Total 6.51 2.81 5.93 2.61 6.41 2.76
F Sig. F Sig. F Sig.66.259 0.000 25.949 0.000 44.569 0.000
Z Z2 Z Z2 Z Z2
0.345 0.119 0.224 0.050 0.289 0.083
Table III.Consumer trust inbanking services inEuropean countries
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When comparing trust in distinct banking services (Table III; Table AI) with overalltrust (Table I) it reveals deviations on these two levels. The mean of trust in bankaccounts across the countries is 6.51, in investments and pensions 5.93 and loansand credits 6.41, whereas the overall trust mean at the organisational level is 6.28.In addition, there is a small negative correlation (�0.074) between the countries inconnection to trust in investments and pensions, but a small positive correlation (0.031)between the countries in bank accounts, and no correlation in loans and credits(�0.005) (Appendix).
The results (Appendix) show that there are demographic deviations in trust at theEuropean level. Men tend to trust banks less than women (mean 6.13 vs 6.41; F¼ 104.4,Sig. 0). Age also tends to affect trust. Young adults (age 18-34) and older people (age55þ ) trust banks more than the middle-aged (age 35-54) (F¼ 15.0, Sig. 0). This resultdoes not reveal that trust may have suffered in all the age groups because of thefinancial crisis along with deteriorating financial conditions in consumers’ owneconomies, as the study by Shim et al. (2013) reports in the case of young adults.
Length of education is not an important element in consumer trust in banks. Theonly exception is the group of young consumers who are still studying. Their trust inbanks is somewhat stronger (6.66) than the trust of those who have finished theirstudies (6.28; F¼ 15.0, Sig. 0). This result is contrary to the conclusions of Shim et al.(2013), who claim that their research and previous studies pinpoint consumereducation as an important determinant of trust in banking. However, Bjornskov’s(2006) study does not recognise education as an important variable in nations’ trust.
Discussion and conclusionsTheoretical implicationsThe purpose of the paper was to examine the content of consumer trust in the bankingsector on the basis of the earlier literature and to compare consumer trust in bankingand distinct banking services in 29 European countries. The specific researchquestions were:
RQ1. Are there deviations in consumer trust in banks at the organisational level,and at a service level, and between distinct services?
RQ2. Does consumer trust in banks and banking services deviate betweenEuropean countries and in which countries trust appears as highest andlowest?
Trust Bank accounts Investments and pensions Loans and credits
High Malta (8.56) Malta (7.38) Malta (8.19)Finland (8.14) Luxembourg (7.17) Finland (7.72)Estonia (8.02) Finland (6.78) Estonia (7.65)Luxembourg (7.65) France (6.73) Germany (7.57)Norway (7.47) Germany (6.71) Luxembourg (7.57)
Low Spain (4.68) Iceland (4.78) Greece (4.70)Ireland (4.78) Spain (4.94) Spain (4.92)Italy (4.85) Slovenia (5.24) Portugal (5.48)Iceland (5.06) the Netherlands (5.31) Romania (5.51)Portugal (5.06) Bulgaria (5.34) Bulgaria (5.53)
Table IV.Top five countriesin consumer trust
in banking services
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First, the paper defines the content of consumer trust in the banking sector andpresents the framework of the study connecting consumer experience, demographicand home country to the concept of trust at the organisational and at the service level.The empirical study consists of a survey gathered in 29 European countries covering41,308 consumer assessments of banks and banking services. The data were analysedby using SPSS-statistical software.
To my knowledge, no previous research has addressed trust in distinct bankingservices separately. This is the main contribution of the study, showing that the degreeof consumer trust varies depending on the service in question. Consumer trust is thehighest in traditional bank accounts, and the lowest in investments and pensions,whereas loans and credits locate close to bank accounts. The study hereby confirmsthat there are deviations in trust between distinct banking services. It alsosuggests that there are differences at the organisational level and at a service-leveltrust. Moreover, at the country-level variation of service-specific trust is even wider.This means that consumers in general can feel strong trust in one banking service inthe particular country, like Norwegians in bank accounts, but they have lower trusttowards the other banking services, like Norwegians in investments and pensions.In these situations, trust is not only context specific, but also service specific. Thereasons behind this result are worth studying in more detail.
The low level of trust in investments and pensions may be attributed to theircomplex nature. Another reason could be the risk involved in investments andpensions. Namely, the success or failure of any investment usually materialises longafter the initial investment decision. Recently along with the financial crisis manyconsumers have discovered that the value of their wealth has been inflated or melted,and as a consequence, their disappointment may result in a lower level of trust asGritten (2011) has noticed.
The second contribution of the study is provided by the unique research datacovering altogether 41,308 consumer assessments in 29 European countries. The dataallow comparison of trust levels between the countries, but unfortunately do not revealthe in-depth reasons for low or high trust, as is often the case with large quantitativestudies. The third contribution responds to the second research question. Namely, thepaper confirms that there is vast deviation between the European countries when itcomes to consumer trust in banking in general but also related to each studied bankingservice. It is obvious that the financial crisis has affected the level of trust more in somenations than other, e.g. Walti’s (2012) study indicates that consumers’ trust in ECB hasdecreased mostly in those European countries that have suffered most from financialcrisis, but it also confirms that trust in ECB in general has fallen since the crisisstarted. In addition, the study by Shim et al. (2013) suggests that the macro-events haveindirect effect on trust through financial well-being.
However, all the European countries that are grossly over-indebted and havesuffered from financial crises (cf. Singala and Kumar, 2012) are among the lowconsumer trust countries in this study. These are the countries that have also receivedemergency assistance through loan packages from IMF and EC (e.g. Jackson, 2010;Singala and Kumar, 2012). Otherwise the results do not follow any previouslypresented division connected either to welfare state discussion (e.g. Esping-Andersen,1990), consumption markets (Trumbull, 2006) or geographical location. The resultscannot be explained by local differences in the banking systems either. For example,strong bank countries like Germany and Luxembourg seem to also display highconsumers’ trust. This is not, however, the case in the UK, which is considered one of
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the world’s financial centres, or in Belgium or the Netherlands, where banks havesurvived without major problems caused by the crisis. Anyway, it can be confirmedthat the highest trust in all the three banking services is experienced in Malta, Finlandand Luxembourg, and the lowest in Spain. Otherwise the countries show variationacross the banking services.
There are demographic deviations in trust at the European level. Men tend to trustbanks less than women and age also tend to affect trust, but length of education is notimportant variable. Ganesan (1994) argues that experience breeds trust. Concerningthis study, all the surveyed consumers had recent experience of the banking servicesthey had assessed. Therefore, the reasons behind the low assessments on trust in somecountries have to be found elsewhere. Just one reason for the low level of consumertrust in either banking at large or separate banking services may be given by Gritten(2011) referring to the consumers’ experience that banks have not behaved in reliableways in their eyes, or banks have faced risks arising from society or banks themselves,such as financial crises, causing disappointments to their customers.
In addition, there may also be underlying cultural and nation-specific reasons toconsider. The study does not recognise clear blocks of countries in which trust isexperienced in a same way. The country-based results may vary, because thepopulation in some countries is more trusting in general than in others (e.g. Bjornskov,2006). Bjornskov’s (2006) study indicates that post-communist societies are lesstrusting than others. This means that consumers in Eastern European countries maybe less trusting towards all services and goods, not only banking, but this study doesnot confirm Bjornskov’s suggestions, since some East European countries, such asEstonia and Latvia, perform well in relation to consumer trust in banks, while others,such as the Czech Republic. Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia, are placed at the mediumtrust level and the rest at the lowest trust level.
Managerial implicationsThe study shows that consumers’ trust in their banking relationships is quite low inmany European countries, but luckily there are also countries where bankingrelationships are functioning well and generating trust among consumers. Low trustmay indicate serious problems in the markets and it should be a signal to bankmanagers to take actions in order to avoid market failure. This is a serious concern inall the over-indebted European countries but also in some Eastern European countrieswhose banking systems never reached stability in the post-communist era.
The results urge bank managers to regain and strengthen consumer trust (see alsoShim et al., 2013). They can start by following Steinhart and Mazursky’s (2010) adviceto reduce the levels of perceived risk in high-complexity banking services and positionthem as simpler products. This way, banking services would be more appealing to theless knowledgeable consumers. However, bank managers should keep in mind thatlow-trust consumers have to be approached with a different strategy than those withhigh trust (cf. Gundlach and Cannon, 2010). In this, bank managers could applybehavioural perspectives in relationships with consumers (see also Chuah and Devlin,2011), present their service offering in a more customer-oriented way, and encourageon-going behavioural loyalty.
In addition, it is suggested that bank managers could learn to understand the truenature of consumer trust more deeply in order to have better chances to build trustmore systematically. In this Mallalieu (2005); see also Kantsberger and Kunz (2010)instructs to find out why the trust has been lost in the first place. When lack of
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consumer trust is originated from the incidents within the environment, bankmanagers should also take care of good financial standing and reputation of theirbanks, but not at consumers’ expense. This means maintaining customer service athigh priority even in the rainy days.
Future research and limitationsThis study serves to give inspiration for future studies. The studies should also focuson trust in other service sectors than banking and find out if results will show as strongservice-specific emphasis as this study. Longitudinal research concerning consumertrust in various service sectors would furthermore produce new knowledge how trustdevelops and how it deteriorates or ends. In addition, consumer trust as a constructand with its antecedents and consequences is worth studying more deeply.
The survey data of this paper cover 41,308 assessments. The amount of data can beconsidered well adequate for statistical analysis. Although the data were gathered bythe EU with a formula decided at European Commission level, it was not possibleto include in the survey the antecedents of trust, which may have otherwise been ofspecific interests to this study.
The definition of consumer trust in banking adopted in this paper is based on earlierresearch. However, when gathering the empirical data, the respondents were notpresented any definition of trust. Thus, their understanding of the trust construct doesnot necessarily coincide exactly with the definition presented at the beginning of thepaper.
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Appendix
Service Mean SD n
Bank accounts 6.51 2.81 13,740Investments and pensions 5.93 2.60 13,805Loans and credits 6.41 2.76 13,763Total 6.28 2.74 41,308
Table AI.Variance
Mean SD n %
GenderMan 6.13 2.79 19,281 46.68Woman 6.41 2.69 22,027 53.32Total 6.28 2.74 41,308Age18-34 6.43 2.67 10,292 24.9235-54 6.14 2.74 18,490 44.7655þ 6.36 2.79 12,526 30.32Total 6.28 2.74 41,308EducationUp to 15 years 6.21 2.96 5,667 13.7216-19 years 6.25 2.80 13,213 31.9920 yearsþ 6.28 2.65 20,323 49.20Still studying 6.66 2.56 2,105 5.10Total 6.28 2.74 41,308
F Sig. Z Z2
Country level 101.435 0 0.254 0.064Service level 13.666 0 0.019 0
Table AII.Consumer trust,
demographic
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About the author
Dr Raija Anneli Jarvinen is focused on various fields in services marketing and management,such as service channels, e-services and service innovations, but also retailing, safety andsecurity management and financial services are the topics of her interests. She was appointed asa professor of insurance for four years at the University of Tampere in 2001 and she has beenacting professor of marketing for one year at Turku School of Economics, Pori unit. She washolding permanent vacancy as head of research in National Consumer Research Centre for years2001-2010, and in 2010 appointed as a research professor. The number of her publicationsis over 100 pieces, of which 38 articles are peer reviewed publications in scientific journals,book chapters and conference proceedings. Dr Raija Anneli Jarvinen can be contacted at:[email protected]
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints
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