The Importance of Trust in Community Banking

Since the economic recession in 2008, the importance of trust for bank customers has risen to new heights. As banking moves towards the digital age, where more private information is being stored online, trust becomes even more critical. In 2018, trust outweighed price as a determining factor when choosing a bank, with 45 percent of those polled saying trust was the top priority versus 43 percent focusing on price as the top priority.¹ With trust outweighing other factors when choosing a bank, maintaining that trust is vital for long-term success.

The transition of financial services to cloud and digital services is something that millennials and younger customers enjoy, with 74 percent of millennials willing to share personal data with banks electronically. However, for customers over that age of 55 that number drops significantly to 49 percent.¹ This 25 percent decrease in trust when sharing personal data electronically is something that banks should consider with dealing with customers who might not trust technology driven financial services the same way a millennial customer might. As a growing number of customers take less time to walk into the bank and make more financial transactions digitally, building and maintaining trust is critical as a banker. Consumer trust has been back on the rise since the 2008 financial crisis, and fortunately appears to be continuing the trend.

The study previously referenced also asked what technological factors would increase their trust with their banks. The 3 most desired factors were reliable fraud protection, technology solving their problems, and a useful mobile application.¹ The most important of the three was reliable fraud protection with 36 percent of those polled stating that a bank implementing a reliable fraud protection program would be an excellent way to regain trust.

Hopefully community banks can continue this trend of increasing trust between customers and bankers and take the necessary preventative steps to ensure that the relationship with a customer is not damaged.

1. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/trust-banking-industry/