Customer churn threat to data-clumsy banks

It's a commonly quoted 'fact' that we change our long term partners more often than we change our banks - and will put up with all sorts from our lenders - but customers appear to be growing increasingly restless in the wake of a series of serious data leaks at major financial institutions.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Discovery, Halifax, HSBC, LloydsTSB, Mizuho, NatWest, MasterCard and Visa have all hit the headlines in the past two months for a series of data losses and breaches, varying wildly in severity.

And such a torrent of scandal has taken its toll on almost three-quarters of respondents (73.5 per cent) to a silicon.com poll, who claim they will switch their accounts if their banks are found to be a guilty party in such a scandal.

A further 18.4 per cent said they would consider switching banks.

Whether or not they carry through that threat remains to be seen, given the opening anecdote, but banks would do well to listen - if they didn't already realise the seriousness of keeping customer data secure.

Only 8.1 per cent of respondents said they would not switch banks - perhaps accepting that with so many breaches across so many banks it may be a case of 'better the devil you know'.

The silicon.com poll consisted of responses from 600 readers.