Lucio Tan-controlled Philippine National Bank has been hailed as the top local bank by the list of Forbes magazine’s survey on World’s Best Banks.
PNB, which has about 8,500 employees, was followed by Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands, which has more than 19,000 employees.
Forbes’ World’s Best Banks 2023 was compiled in partnership with market research firm Statista, The list is based on a worldwide survey of 48,000 banking customers in 32 countries.
“The 415 banks who earned a spot on our ranking were evaluated in categories such as digital services, customer services, financial advice and, of course, trust,” the magazine said.
The Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines was third best in the Philippines, followed at fourth by BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender, which has about 95,000 employees. In fifth place was state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Savings Bank was at sixth place, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. of the Yuchengco group was at seventh, Maya Bank was at eighth and Robinsons Bank, which is merging with BPI, was in ninth place.
“Online banks are at the top in many countries, reflecting the pandemic’s impact on customers’ digital comfort,”Forbes said, adding that over the past two years, banks rapidly adopted new digital technology that made customers’ experiences more robust, swift and personal—all necessary to appeal to Millennial and Gen Z customers.
“After the pandemic, whipsawing interest rates and the failure of giants fixtures like Silicon Valley Bank, these institutions are discovering that trust is the most important factor they can, well, bank on,” the magazine said.
Forbes said the banks were rated on general satisfaction, or 30 percent of the final score and whether they would recommend the bank at 30 percent. The final 40 percent came from customer ratings in five key areas including trust, terms and conditions, digital services, customer services and financial advice.
Numbers of banks vary based on the size of the country, the survey audience, and how many banks they named. To make the list, a bank had to be rated by at least 250 customers.
Image credits: Patrick Roque/CC BY-SA 4.0)