Ross McEwan, newish chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, is the latest banker to declare that he intends to turn his institution into the most trusted bank in Britain.
A bank that works for its customers rather than its executives is a commendable ambition. The trouble is I am sure I have heard much the same thing from both Barclays’ Antony Jenkins and Lloyds Banking Group’s Antonio Horta-Osorio.
The problem is that, by definition, only one bank can actually be the most trusted bank in Britain. But what exactly is that definition? I can, for example, confidently state this column is the UK’s most trusted financial commentary — so long as we are talking about financial columns printed in free London newspapers on a Tuesday, with my colleague Anthony Hilton excepted.
McEwan, Jenkins and Horta-Osorio will doubtless each come up with their own measure of trustworthiness, and each will claim the crown.
Meanwhile, I’m scratching my head because NatWest was the last recipient of the Moneywise most trusted bank award as recently as last July. How can it become more trusted than that?
