6 months after Northern Rock other banks are struggling during the credit crunch, forcing some major players into rights-issues to shore up their defences. The Media Intelligence Evaluation team takes a look into whether the reputations of the major financial institutions have affected the perceived quality of the products they provide.

Downbeat January…

• Below average product performance. All 8 banks’ products performed below average across the board, most notably in January following the lowering of the Base Rate.
• Fewer deals, higher rates. These institutions removed their most competitive deals and raised rates on surviving mortgage products while not increasing the rates of their savings products by an equal amount - if at all.
• Yet record results. January was also the worst month for reputation as record annual results were announced at a time when customers were in real danger of losing their homes.

Upbeat December and February…

• Better reputation than average. December and February saw these institutions score better for reputation than the average - largely due to low scores from large international banks, such as Bear Stearns and UBS, which either collapsed or announced write-downs of tens of billions of dollars.
• Improved product performance. December and February were also the months where products scored the highest over the six months - so there is indeed some correlation with reputation and products.

These major players in the UK banking sector have consistently been at the top of the Presswatch Financial table for products over the past five years. It would seem that when times are tough the quality of their products declines at a comparable level.