Public attitudes towards the UK banking industry following the global financial crisis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to establish the antecedents of changes in public attitudes towards the UK banking industry following the global financial crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was administered to 1,066 people querying their attributions of blame for the crisis, attitudes towards the banking industry, levels of anger, knowledge of the crisis, degrees of moralistic trust, political orientations, prior perceptions of the banking industry's reputation, and whether they had personally suffered as a result of events. A structural equation model covering these matters was developed and estimated.

Findings

A substantial deterioration in the favourability of public attitudes towards the banking industry seems to have occurred following the crisis. However, certain groups of respondents were much less critical of the industry's role in the crisis than were others.

Research limitations/implications

The banking industry of just a single country was considered. Participants only commented on their attitudes towards the banking sector and not their actual banking behaviour.

Practical implications

Collectively, the banking industry needs to advertise the fact that failures on the part of public regulators played a critical role in the advent of the crisis. The industry should take joint action to influence the mass media's interpretations of the banking sector's current activities.

Originality/value

This was the first study to explore how members of the public interpret the post‐crisis identity and behaviour of the banking industry as a whole, rather than individual companies within it. The results contribute to knowledge concerning the determinants of attitude change vis‐à‐vis the banking sector and how customers might be segmented in terms of their perceptions.

Citation

Bennett, R. and Kottasz, R. (2012), "Public attitudes towards the UK banking industry following the global financial crisis", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 128-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/02652321211210877