Metro Bank and First Direct top latest official banking league table
First Direct and Metro Bank have jointly topped the latest official banking service league table, while RBS took the wooden spoon for the third time.
Since August 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has required banks to publish information on how likely people would be to recommend them – as well as their online and mobile banking, branch and overdraft services – to friends, relatives or other businesses, and they have to update this information every six months.
Since then, Metro Bank and First Direct have been tussling for the top spot – First Direct won the first official poll, but was beaten by Metro Bank in the second league table in February.
Now the two banks are sharing the crown, with 82% of customers for each saying they'd recommend it to friends and family.
RBS took the wooden spoon for the third time in a row, with 46% of customers saying they'd recommend the bank.
Until this year, First Direct had won every customer service poll MoneySavingExpert.com had done since 2010. But in our latest biannual customer service poll in March, it lost the top spot to app-only challenger bank Monzo (which wasn't included in the CMA's official league table).
Metro Bank wasn't included in our latest poll results because it received just 40 votes, and we only include results with at least 100 votes.
If you're not happy with your bank's service, you could get a free £175 to switch. See our Best Bank Accounts guide for more info.
How did my bank fare?
The independent poll on customer service for banks in Great Britain was conducted between July 2018 and June 2019 by market research company Ipsos MORI.
More than 13,000 current account customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their provider, their provider's online and app service, overdraft services and service in branch to friends and family. The results show the proportion of customers of each of the largest 16 providers who said they were 'extremely likely' or 'very likely' to recommend each service.
Provider | Overall service | Online and app service | Overdraft service | Branch service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Metro Bank | 82% | 83% | 67% | 85% |
First Direct | 82% | 85% | 77% | n/a (1) |
Nationwide | 74% | 80% | 63% | 79% |
Barclays | 66% | 86% | 65% | 73% |
Lloyds Bank | 64% | 76% | 61% | 73% |
HSBC | 62% | 75% | 65% | 68% |
Santander | 61% | 76% | 65% | 72% |
NatWest | 61% | 79% | 61% | 64% |
Yorkshire Bank | 59% | 72% | 50% | 67% |
Bank of Scotland | 59% | 79% | 47% | 69% |
Halifax | 58% | 79% | 61% | 67% |
TSB | 56% | 63% | 54% | 71% |
Clydesdale Bank | 56% | 69% | 55% | 65% |
Tesco Bank | 55% | 68% | n/a (2) | n/a (1) |
The Co-op Bank | 55% | 63% | 55% | 63% |
RBS | 46% | 69% | 49% | 53% |
Approximately 860 customers are surveyed per year across Great Britain for every provider with more than 150,000 personal current account customers. Results are only published where at least 100 customers have provided an eligible score for that service in the survey period. (1) First Direct and Tesco Bank don't have branch networks. (2) Fewer than 100 customers gave an eligible score.
New results are released every February and August. You can read more about the methods of the survey from Ipsos MORI.
There are separate results for Northern Ireland, in which HSBC topped the overall rankings and First Trust Bank came bottom.
For more on how to switch, see Best Bank Accounts.
What do the banks say?
Metro Bank chief executive Craig Donaldson said: "We are extremely proud to still hold the top spot for personal current account service and maintain our top two position among business customers.
"Service and convenience are at the heart of everything we do at Metro Bank and we're thrilled that our customers can see this. Thank you to all our customers and colleagues for being part of the banking revolution."
Joe Gordon, head of First Direct, said: "We're delighted to again be providing the highest standards of customer service in UK banking. When it comes to making decisions about banking services, we believeservice quality is just as important as price for consumers."
An RBS spokesperson said: "We know we can do more to improve the experience for customers in certain aspects of our service.
"We're investing in dedicated teams focused on making targeted improvements for customers and rolling out continuous changes to make banking easier, such as our software to help reduce queuing times in branches and expanding our AI technology, Cora, through the introduction of voice banking."
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3 December 2024
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