The market regulator said today that the Royal Bank of Scotland, a part of NatWest Group PLC (LSE:NWG), is the worst-rated personal current account provider in the UK.
RBS was closely followed in the rankings by Virgin Money UK PLC (LSE:VMUK) and TSB Banking Group (LSE:TSB), which were the bottom-three rated banks for personal accounts, according to the Competition and Markets Authority's latest ratings.
Adam Land, senior director at the CMA, said: “As the rising cost of living bites, it’s important that people and businesses have the information they need to manage their money and make savings.
“These results show how banks are treating their customers at a time when many are feeling the pinch.”
The results were based on surveys of thousands of banking customers, including small businesses, which were conducted by market researcher Ipsos and consultancy BVA BDRC amid the rising cost-of-living crisis.
The CMA made it compulsory for banks to take part in the surveys, which asked customers how likely they would be to recommend their current account providers to others.
HSBC ranked among the worst business current account providers, at joint pegging with Virgin Money, as it faces mounting pressure to split its operations by its largest shareholder Ping An.
The Co-operative Bank plc (LSE:CPBB) was meanwhile rated the worst provider of business current accounts in Britain.
A breakdown of the BVA BDRC's survey of business banking customers, which was carried out between July 2021 and June 2022, showed traditional banks such as Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) were issued mediocre rankings by their customers.
Lloyds and Natwest ranked fourth in the tables for small and medium enterprise overdraft and loan services, with only 57% of business customers recommending their respective services.
In the business survey, Lloyds came fourth for in-branch and business centre services, impressing just 54% of its business customers.
Barclays and Natwest were joint fourth in the rankings for SME online and mobile banking services, satisfying 68% of customers, according to a breakdown of the survey results published on HSBC's website.
While many traditional banks slumped to the bottom or middle of the ratings, challenger banks raced ahead in the market regulator’s rankings.
Starling Bank rated top of the personal current account providers in the UK and similarly topped the charts for the best-ranked business current account provider.
It ranked joint first with Monzo for personal current accounts while Monzo ranked second-best provider of business accounts.