Many years ago I processed the data of a banking choice based study conducted in Romania. I was surprised to find a large group of people whose only aspirations were for the bank not to lose their money, they had almost zero utilities for service, higher interest rates, telephone banking or any of the key items being tested in the study. In conversation with the agency running the project I was told about a banking crash that had robbed many people of their life savings, so the choice data was based on something quite tangible. At the time I passed this off as a phenomenon of interest, but of limited relevance to other markets.
However, today I saw a billboard in Brisbane making exactly the same point. RaboPlus is selling itself as Australia's safest bank, with no reference to interest rates, charges, or services. Even the website defualts (at the moment) to a page claiming RaboPlus is Australia's only bank to be rated as AAA by Standard Poor's.
Amongst the points of interest in this campaign is the reference to Standard and Poor's. I would guess that very few people know what Standard and Poor's is, and, amongst the few that are familiar with that rating agency, I suspect very, very few hold it in the sort of high regard it was held before the 'credit crunch'.
The website is somewhat vague on the point that RaboPlus is owned by a Dutch bank. The webasite does say quite promenently that RaboPlus is part of Rabobank Australia Ltd, but is less 'in your face' that the Rabobank parent is based in the Netherlands. Which, given the concerns over some European banks is probably a key point.
p.s. this article should not be interpretted as providing financial advice in any way shape or form.
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