Household HSBC Watch

Stephen Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, told vnunet.com that the existing financial services industry was unlikely to exist in 20 years’ time.

“Ten or 15 years ago, people trusted banks. Nowadays banks in the UK realise that most of their customers don’t actually trust them. They don’t even like them. They only use them because they know there isn’t really an alternative,” he said.

“Banks are a classic case of [a business where] their whole livelihood, their ability to trade, is about being trusted. They used to be trusted, but they’re not anymore. They’re tolerated.