According to the survey, 7 out of 10 SMB clients are satisfied by their banks’ performance. Amongst those that are unhappy, nearly all plan to switch banks in the next 12 months, portending a shakeup in the UK’s lucrative business banking sector.
Overall, 22% of SMBs in the survey reported they are actively planning to switch banks and, of those, one-third (33%) have annual revenues of GBP 55.5 million and above, meaning it’s the clients most likely to generate substantial fee income that are eager to leave. But, interestingly, high fees may not be what’s driving them to switch.
The study seeks to rank nine banking functions in terms of importance to SMB clients and then measure UK banks’ performance in each area. On average, 43% of all SMB financial transactions were completed digitally, and 60% of UK SMBs report receiving more online, mobile, and person-to-person (P2P) payments in the prior 12 months.
This trails adoption and acceptance in the US — but that may be the problem, as more customers expect businesses to accept their preferred method of payment, whatever that may be. Overall, just 4% of UK SMBs report using outside services to process their digital payments, but that number more than doubles to 11% for those businesses looking to switch banks.
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