Monzo comes out on top in CMA’s banking satisfaction ranking

Monzo is the overall top-ranked provider of both personal and business current accounts in Britain, closely followed by Starling Bank, according to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) latest banking satisfaction survey.

The survey, established as part of the Retail Banking Order, asked personal and small business current account holders how likely they would be to recommend their provider to a friend, relative or other business.

Current account providers also received a score based on the quality of online and mobile provision, branch and overdraft services and, for small businesses, the quality of the relationship management they receive.

After Monzo and Starling Bank, which received overall service quality scores of 80% and 79%, respectively, First Direct came third in the ranking for personal current account providers, with a score of 78%.

When it came to online and mobile banking services for personal banking customers, Starling Bank pipped Monzo to the post, scoring 85% versus Monzo’s 84% and with First Direct closing out the top three with an 80% score.

Virgin Money and Royal Bank of Scotland were ranked joint 15^th, placing them at the bottom of the overall ranking of personal current account holders, scoring just 48%, and TSB with a score of 49%.

Among business current account providers, Monzo and Starling Bank ranked first and second, having scored 84% and 82% respectively, for overall service quality.

Handelsbanken closed out the top three, with a score of 74%, and Tide followed with a 73% score for overall service quality.

The lowest-ranked business current account provider in Britain is HSBC UK, which received an overall service quality score of 42% – a ranking it also maintained when business customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their provider’s relationship/account management to other SMEs, for which it scored 40%.

On that measure, Handelsbanken came out on top, with a score of 81%, followed by Monzo and Tide, scoring a respective 73% and 69%.

Adam Land, senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis at the CMA, said: “How banks treat their customers can make an enormous difference to their daily lives, particularly when people and small businesses are feeling the pinch.

“These results make it easy for people to see in branch, or at the click of a button, which banks are listening to their customers and meeting their needs.”

He added: “This puts pressure on poorly-performing banks to raise their game. If the service and quality offered by your bank has been below par, then you may well be able to do better by making a switch.”

In Northern Ireland, the top-ranked personal account providers overall are Monzo, Starling Bank and Barclays, while Ulster Bank, Bank of Ireland UK and Allied Irish Banks are ranked bottom.

Santander, Danske Bank and Ulster Bank, are the top-ranked business current account providers in Northern Ireland, overall, while the bottom-ranked business current account providers are Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank.

The survey is the 11th publication over six years of the services quality league table of personal and business current account providers.