MSE News: Current account switch decline – which banks were the winners and losers?

Don80

I find it interesting looking at this in terms of the size of some of the banks.

RBS and Natwest are listed separately despite being the same group which makes sad reading for RBS. RBS has 1.8 million personal customers and has a loss of 8,412 accounts, and Natwest has 14 million personal customers, with a loss of 9,765 accounts which is far smaller in terms of the overall number of customers. What's NatWest doing that RBS isn't? Or is it simply that the poor publicity goes under the RBS name and people forget they own Natwest?

It may be that "personal customers" does not equal one account per customer, but surely that says something? I'm not surprised at the RBS figures, their accounts and interest rates are nothing to shout about, which is why I switched away from RBS.

Bank of Scotland had a gain of 343 and has 2.8 million personal account holders. That surprised me because I had always thought RBS was bigger than the Bank of Scotland. You do learn something new every day!

What makes this slightly confusing (and probably has to do with how the banks are set up) is that some, like HSBC are grouped together (HSBC/First Direct), while others like RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland/Natwest) are split - as is Lloyds. Lloyds Bank is shown separately from Bank of Scotland. Halifax is separate too, despite being a Bank of Scotland trading name.

http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/our-brands/bank-of-scotland/
http://www.rbs.com/our-brands/royal-bank-of-scotland.html
http://www.rbs.com/our-brands/natwest.html

Don80

Terry98 wrote: »

Why are First Direct not showing in the list?

I thought they might be included with HSBC but Nat West and RBS are both shown.

The original data states that FD is included with HSBC

https://www.bacs.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/CASS_dashboard_-_published_26_July_17.pdf

System

RBS likely suffers from it's tarnished brand (more than NatWest) plus the whole William and Glynn saga probably didn't help matters.

The stats regarding trading names are inconsistent as Clydesdale likely includes Yorkshire Bank but BOS doesn't include Halifax.

Probably only useful data when you know each providers active number of current accounts and if the short term switching incentives drop off.

Don80

Heng_Leng wrote: »

RBS likely suffers from it's tarnished brand (more than NatWest) plus the whole William and Glynn saga probably didn't help matters.

The stats regarding trading names are inconsistent as Clydesdale likely includes Yorkshire Bank but BOS doesn't include Halifax.

Probably only useful data when you know each providers active number of current accounts and if the short term switching incentives drop off.

Just looked at the original, you're right, Yorkshire Bank is included with Clydesdale Bank. :-)

batrachophagus

eskbanker wrote: »

I'm not sure if I'm missing your meaning (i.e. a small proportion of what exactly?) but if you're referring to switches as a proportion of all accounts then there's no need to guess, in that the article specifically and prominently states that:

Sorry I wasn't very clear. I mean customers who switch repeatedly for the incentives.

kukuman

Wonder where are:
* First Direct?
* Metro?

Don80

kukuman wrote: »

Wonder where are:
* First Direct?
* Metro?

Hi

The original data states that FD is included with HSBC and Metro Bank has not submitted data for this quarter so isn't reported on this time.

eskbanker

For those having difficulty following the links to the underlying data, with its full explanation of its construction and presentation, perhaps it's worth simply pasting it:

This table presents the number of full account switches completing in the reporting period. Data from Handelsbanken and Metro Bank has not been provided for Q4 2016.

Account Switching Brand Grouping:
AIB Group (UK) p.l.c. includes the First Trust Bank and Allied Irish Bank (GB) brand switches.
Bank of Ireland includes the Post Office brand switches.
Clydesdale Bank includes Yorkshire Bank brand switches.
Co-operative includes the Smile brand switches.
HSBC includes First Direct and Marks & Spencer Bank brand switches.
RBS includes Adam & Company, Coutts and Isle of Man brand switches.
Low Volume Participants comprises Arbuthnot Latham, C Hoare & Co, Commerzbank, Cumberland Building Society, Duncan Lawrie, Hampden & Co, Investec, Reliance Bank, Triodos Bank, Virgin Money and Weatherbys Bank switches.

batrachophagus

kukuman wrote: »

Wonder where are:
* First Direct?
* Metro?

First Direct / Marks & Spencer = HSBC
Metro = Not sure. Institutions have to opt in to the participant data. It may be that Metro don't want to share their information.

harz99

Hardly surprising Santander are the big loser given their "double whammy" of reduced interest rate and higher monthly fee.


My personal account got switched away quite quickly, my wife's has been run down and is being switched to M&S next week, which just leaves our 123 joint account on which the cashback just covers the fee, so that stays fully funded for now.


We, like a lot of avid switchers chasing incentives, have now pretty much reached the point where incentives are no longer available because of past switches and T&Cs, a decline there then.