Business banking news review: week ending 10 April 2014
Two bits of interesting news this week: first of all, there’s literally millions of Brits who don’t have bank accounts – but this could change very soon indeed.
First for the shocking bit: some three million Brits don’t have a current account, according to the latest bombshell from a finance research group. This figure is four times the number of Brits who went without before the credit crunch and resultant economic slowdown back in 2008, and the revelation has sent ripples through the personal and business bank account industry as proof positive that most of the kinds of services you can access at High Street bank branches just aren’t worth the headache that entails.
The number of ‘unbanked’ Brits seems to be growing by leaps and bounds and I for one can’t really fault anyone who decides to stuff their mattresses with their earnings right now. Sure it’s inconvenient in some cases, but it’s not like you’re missing out on a bank account with a fantastic interest rate – most rates of return on savings accounts right now are well under the rate of inflation. Better to just pay your bills and keep the cash handy, eh?
Of course it’s still marginally safer to have your funds deposited somewhere, and that’s what Metro Bank’s founder and former chairman Anthony Thomson is betting on. Thomson has decided to put plans in motion to launch an online-only bank in an effort to capture the growing number of Brits dissatisfied with High Street banks.
If there’s anything that how the larger banks handle things in the UK, it’s that they can’t be trusted to do anything but make themselves as rich as possible. Between mis-selling scandals and awarding their executives massive bonuses in times of economic strife, the antics of major banking institutions haven’t earned them much in the way of support from consumers or even the Government, and this typically means that any new competition in the financial services market is bloody welcome, for what it’s worth!
Let’s hope that this new online banking solution that Thomson is cooking up will attract people that are reticent to walk into their local branch. Heaven knows they’ve got nothing to lose, especially if this new online-only financial service provider can offer good deals. Without having to manage a network of branches, it might be able to pull off just that.