Warm Feelings Toward Banks Could be Threatened by Impacts of New Regulation

Announcing the Winners of 2014 Best Brand Awards


When it comes to their reputation among U.S. companies, banks are riding high. For the vast majority of banks competing for the business of U.S. small businesses and mid-sized companies, bank brands have never been stronger, based on annual research by Greenwich Associates.

These strong results represent a major accomplishment for the banking sector with bank reputation ratings and client satisfaction scores climbing sharply and steadily for the past several years in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

“With banks competing hard for business at a time of depressed corporate demand for credit, it’s relatively easy for companies to get what they want from their banks and this has translated into some of the highest brand and reputation scores ever seen in the U.S. market,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Marc Harrison.

The 2014 Greenwich Best Brand Overall in Commercial Banking are (in alphabetical order):

Middle Market: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BB&T, Chase, PNC, SunTrust, US Bank, Wells Fargo

Small Business: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BB&T, Chase, PNC, SunTrust, TD Bank, Wells Fargo

Challenges Ahead
Sterling reputations enjoyed by many banks today could soon face some significant headwinds. The impact of new regulations on large and mid-sized bank could have an even bigger impact on bank brands and client satisfaction as banks are forced to reallocate resources to comply and maintain profitability.

Many banks are re-segmenting clients with an eye on cost to serve. “Relationship manager turnover has become a big issue,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Don Raftery. “If small businesses and mid-sized companies see continued RM turnover as disruptive to their relationships, client satisfaction and bank reputation scores will start to take a hit.”

Greenwich Best Brand Awards
As part of its 2014 commercial banking research, Greenwich Associates surveyed nearly 13,000 small businesses and 11,000 mid-sized companies and asked them to name the banks they would consider using for a variety of banking products and services. Banks cited the most by current clients and non-customers receive Greenwich Best Brand Awards.