The Co-operative Bank has come top in Forrester’s European Bank Customer Advocacy Rankings. It’s the second year in a row it has placed first, this time around just ahead of Poland's ING Bank Śląski, with Germany's Sparda-Banken in third place.

Just 29 per cent of the nearly 24,000 European adults surveyed believe their main bank does what’s best for them. Overall, the Polish and German banks have the best relationships with their customers, and the British banks the worst. The scores within each country vary substantially. Although British banks overall have some of the worst relationships, the UK contains three organisations with the best: The Co-operative Bank, Nationwide Building Society and First Direct.

Other customer advocacy leaders include Germany’s Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, Spain’s Bancaja and Rabobank in the Netherlands. Customers think mutually-owned firms that don't have shareholders to worry about tend to do better at putting their interests first. The same applies to pure retail banks that don't have big investment banking operations.

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