32% of UK consumers would welcome a larger choice of providers when it comes time to open a new savings account or current account, reports a new survey.
The survey, conducted by professional research and consulting organisation YouGov and carried out at the behest of financial adviser Deloitte, discovered that 32 per cent of those polled desired a larger number of financial services providers to choose from. Additionally three out of every ten respondents stated that they would be amenable to opening a savings account with a non-traditional personal or business bank account provider.
The YouGov study also discovered that out of those consumers it polled, 27 per cent of them would apply for a credit card from any new entrants to the financial sector. Additionally 22 per cent of respondents would be willing to open a current account with a newcomer to the banking marketplace.
Deloitte’s retail banking head, Neil Tomlinson, released a statement in conjunction with the research findings stating that despite consumers being comfortable with taking out certain classes of financial offerings from market newcomers such as savings or current accounts, many are much more cautious when it comes to such long-term products as mortgages and related matters.
While the Deloitte survey reports on the willingness of consumers welcome more competition in the market, the findings of another research project are contradictory. The Switching in the UK report, recently released by Spanish banking giant Santander, discovered that for every 100 current account holders in the UK, only seven of them actually went ahead and switched to a different provider over the last 12 months.