Yorkshire Bank best for business customers
'Best in the UK' according to Forum of Private Business survey
Yorkshire Bank is the best for business customers in the UK - according to the leading survey conducted by the Forum of Private Business in to how small businesses view their banks.
Yorkshire was ranked first, along with Belfast registered AIB. Yorkshire Bank - headquartered in Leeds - was the runner-up the last time the survey was carried out in 2002. Yorkshire's sister bank in Scotland, Clydesdale Bank, was placed next. NatWest, HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds TSB filled the last four places in the survey.
David Thorburn, Yorkshire Bank's Chief Operating Officer, said: "It's great that Yorkshire Bank is the best in the UK - scooping 'Gold' and 'Silver' is a fantastic result and one we are immensely proud of. We have created a unique model with our network of 74 Financial Solution Centres across the UK. The key driver of this model is to deliver a first class 'one stop shop' for all of our business customers."
Commenting on the result, Nick Goulding, Chief Executive of the Forum of Private Business, said: "Yorkshire and Clydesdale have again outperformed their competition in demonstrating high levels of performance in a wide range of key areas, according to their small and medium sized business customers. Today's announcement shows that they have continued to improve the services that they provide SMEs. Yorkshire and Clydesdale have consistently performed well in recent years, developing stronger customer relationships and improving their offerings. They are to be congratulated."
The bi-annual survey, 'Private Businesses and Their Banks 2006', was conducted by the Forum of Private Businesses and involved over 3,700 firms from across the UK. Analysed by Nottingham University Business School, the results revealed that once again the Bank's rating had risen across a wide range of performance indicators, such as the focus on customer relationships performance and the range and speed of service delivery.
Firms were asked to rate their bank across 18 factors - ranging from charges and convenience of location to friendliness and quality of advice.
David Thorburn went on to say: "This is an authoritative and comprehensive survey, so we are delighted to have been rated the best in the UK by our customers. It is a real testament to the enthusiasm, expertise and commitment shown by our staff in delivering high quality services and products to our customers over the past two years.
According to the FPB study, just over one in three (37%) of SMEs had considered switching bank but had not done so. Less than one in 20 (4.7%) had switched and more than half (58%) admitted they had not even thought about transferring their account.
This success follows a number of other prestigious awards won by the Bank in the last six weeks, including:
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