Clients of banks and cooperatives expressed their opinion about their financial performance in five key topics

The difficulty in access to credit and low interest rates customers receive for their deposits are the main concerns of users of the Ecuadorian financial system, according to a study carried out by the firms Advance Consultora and MarketWatch.

This research was carried out with the participation of 2,241 clients of the financial system, who expressed their opinions on five main aspects: expectations, quality, perception of value received, satisfaction and loyalty. The research was done based on a franchise, under the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) methodology, through telephone surveys, on-line and face-to-face, and a score of 100 points, explained Gonzalo Rueda, manager of MarketWatch.

In general, the clients of 1,344 banks and 907 cooperatives they evaluated cooperatives with a higher score than banks. A curious fact occurs when measuring the perception of the price received. While for the banks the rating was 72.26 out of 100; cooperatives scored 80.27 out of 100. This reveals that from the perspective of customers, investments in deposits have higher rates and a better value received associated with rates as well as commissions and transfers, explains Rueda.

For Rueda, we must not lose sight of the fact that a higher rate also means a greater risk.

In any case, the ease of accessing credit and the savings rate are the indicators with the lowest rating in both types of financial institutions. In the first aspect, the banks register a score of 67.94, while the cooperatives obtained a score of 69.80. In the second indicator, the banks register a rating of 67.26 and the cooperatives reached an average of 72.38.

The banks obtained a score of 78.69 in general expectations, 82.18 in perceived quality and 79.08 in customer satisfaction, while cooperatives achieved a score of 79.73 in general expectations, 84.57 in perceived quality and 81.03 in customer satisfaction.

Rueda also explains that in fact cooperatives have more lax legislation than banks, banks have more controls and regulations. Additionally, the profile of cooperative clients is different and therefore the demand for credit is also different. In banking, the demand is more for consumption and business, while in cooperatives it is more for microcredit.

The cooperatives stood out in aspects such as service hours (89.02), coverage (84.24) and service agility (84.58). On the other hand, the banks obtained a favorable evaluation in details, such as the ease of use of electronic banking (84.29) and the number of ATMs (78.13).

Meanwhile, Luis Pástor, CEO of Advance Consultora, commented that this study “allowed the identification of positive and negative aspects observed by clients in the institutions of the financial system, which will be very useful, so that these entities can work on improving processes and adjusting the quality of the services they provide to their clients.

Meanwhile, Antonella León (73 years old), a client of both banks and cooperatives, considered that each type of entity has its own characteristics. She thinks that risks exist in all entities, be they banks or cooperatives. For this reason, she is used to having her deposits in several entities: “you don’t have to put all your eggs in the same basket,” she says. She assures that there are cooperatives that have higher interest rates, but she is very careful and prefers to put in an entity that has a risk rating of AA or more.

On the other hand, MarketWatch and Advance Consultora recalled that the ACSI model was established in 1994 at the University of Michigan. ACSI is the first and only standardized model of consumer satisfaction, measuring the entire United States economy. This methodology uses data from approximately 300,000 consumers per year who have evaluated the satisfaction of more than 380 companies in 45 industries and 10 economic sectors. (I)