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Business wants more Chartered Bankers
February 2010

Decisive backing for the Chartered Banker qualification as the most trusted hallmark of financial competence comes from leaders of Britain’s smaller businesses – often defined as the backbone of our enterprise economy.

Among those who express an opinion in the latest research, more business decision-makers say they’d trust the advice of a Chartered Banker (37%) than that of a banker with other degrees, diplomas or recognised qualifications.

And a clear majority of these business decision makers who express an opinion, (57%) also say they prefer working with banking relationship managers who are professionally qualified Chartered Bankers. The same proportion declare that a bank where all relationship mangers have passed their banking exams is more likely to understand and service my business better.

These are among the main findings of an exclusive survey of small business decision-makers published in the latest issue of Chartered Banker magazine. It was conducted by the research agency YouGov across the UK in December. On the business front, these findings massively reinforce similar exclusive YouGov research carried out for the institute in November among banking’s retail customers.

That earlier survey found a staggering 88% of respondents agree that all bankers should take professional banking exams, with 84% expressing a preference for banking with an institution where all staff had passed their banking exams. That survey, too, overwhelmingly recognised the Chartered Banker qualification as the most trusted (41%) symbol for financial advice in banking.

The latest research, conducted online among 1,020 business decision makers between 26-29 December 2009, elaborates these positive themes among the business community.

"There’s a really strong message in this survey," says Simon Thompson, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland. "The headline finding, which comes through loud and clear, is that a majority of business decision makers would rather be a customer of a bank where their relationship manager was a professionally qualified Chartered Banker.

"That’s an extraordinarily powerful endorsement of Chartered Banker, particularly when we add it to the 37% of consumers who expressed an opinion who say that they would most trust a Chartered Banker to give them financial advice. It’s a message we’ll be driving home this year with banking leaders and regulators as we undertake our vital task of rebuilding trust and confidence in the banking profession."