TL;DR: Two years after the UK’s Consumer Duty rules, Brits think banks are doing better. New YouGov data shows more people say banks communicate clearly (+11 pts), protect customers (+11 pts), and offer value for money (+11 pts) compared to 2023. Negative views on risk, protection, and value have dropped by up to 10 points. Overall, public trust in banks has improved — but some areas still have room to grow.

In July 2023, the FCA introduced its Consumer Duty Principle: a set of standards designed to make sure that banks would deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Among other things, these standards included provisions around communication with customers, the quality of support and services, and value for money.

At the time, YouGov asked the public how they felt banks and financial services companies were performing in these areas. Now, two years on from the introduction of Consumer Duty on 31 July 2023, we’ve polled Britons again – and the results show across-the-board improvements in public opinion.

The increase in public goodwill is larger in some areas than others. For example, there has been an 11 percentage-point increase in the proportion of consumers who thinks banks provide information that is easy to understand (rising from 44% in 2023 to 55% in 2025); that banks protect customers from potential harm (from 40% in 2023 to 51% now); and that they provide value for money (up from 36% to 47%).

Other improvements have been smaller. For example, there has been a three point rise in the proportion who think banks provide good customer service (60% - 63%), however, this was already an area where financial institutions were generally well regarded.

Going hand in hand with these improvements are noticeable declines in negative sentiment. For example, the proportion of Britons who think banks are doing a poor job of communicating risk to consumers has dropped seven percentage points from 47% to 40%.

The proportion who aren’t confident that banks have done enough to protect consumers from harm has declined from 47% to 38% - an even greater decrease of nine points.

It’s a similar story with metrics such as value for money, where the number of Britons who think their bank performs badly in this area fell from 43% to 33%: a ten-percentage point drop.

Areas such as quality of service have seen a smaller fall in negative sentiment from 27% to 23% – but again, sentiment in this area was broadly positive back in 2023 so there may have been less scope for change to begin with.

In any case, whether perceptions of banks have positively changed due to the introduction of Consumer Duty or some other combination of factors, it appears the public are more positive about financial institutions than they were back in 2023.

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YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 19-20 June 2025, with a nationally representative sample of 2123  adults (aged 18+ years) in Great Britain, using a questionnaire designed by YouGov. Data figures have been weighted by age, gender, education, region and social grade to be representative of all adults in Great Britain (18 years or older), and reflect the latest ONS population estimates. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.

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