US Consumer Banks Rebound

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
March 06, 2014, 4:32 PM GMT+0

More than five years after the country’s biggest financial collapse, the big retail banks are no longer in the consumer doghouse. Leading the banking sector rebound is Chase, with consumer perception levels now higher than its pre-2008 financial crisis levels.

Three of the four largest consumer banks – Chase, Bank Of America and Wells Fargo – have seen accelerated improvement in consumer perception since November 2013. Chase and Wells Fargo lead the group in consumer perception, trending toward more positive sentiment than negative by a comfortable margin.

Citi has also now reached similar perception levels to those seen just before the financial crash of September 2008. However, Citi’s scores had already been hurt after their sub-prime loss disclosures in 2007. The last time Citibank reached a positive perception score was October 2007.

By late 2011, Bank Of America was behind its three national competitors by a long way. However, along with the general industry recovery and perhaps helped by a brand re-launch in April 2013, they have showed steady improvement and are now at their best perception numbers since late 2008. Bank of America is now close to the neutral sentiment levels of Citibank.

Bank Of America, Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo were measured with YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asks respondents "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative. All respondents were age 18 and over.

YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz scores range is from 100 to -100 and compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.

Chase’s current Buzz score is 8, compared to pre-economic crisis numbers, where it was hovering between scores of 2 and 3 for the first two-thirds of 2008. Its recent improvements took it from a -3 score in early November up to its current 8.

Just behind Chase is Wells Fargo with a 6 score, and like Chase, it escaped the deep perception drops of Citibank and Bank Of America. Wells Fargo reached -13 in March 2009 but recovered a mere two months later. Starting this past November, Wells Fargo went from a zero score to its current 6.

Both Citibank and Bank Of America had the longest recoveries: Citibank moved from -46 on March 9, 2009 to its current score of 1.

Bank Of America took two steep drops over the past five years: the first during the initial crisis, when it reached a -35 Buzz score, after significant recovery it fell again in late 2011, hitting -48. Since then Bank of America has been on a steady upswing, hitting its present -1 Buzz score.

Buzz: Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo