These are the best banks according to young South Africans

The Sunday Times has released its Gen Next survey, looking at the ‘coolest’ brands in South Africa.

The survey is based on a poll of more than 7,000 South African youths between the ages of 8 and 23 in over 75 different categories – including companies, banks, shopping malls, cars and fast-food restaurants.

It is considered the leading barometer of youth sentiment in South Africa, on what they find on-trend and aspirational.

Fourteen new categories were introduced this year, including ‘Coolest Online Fashion Store’ (Superbalist), ‘Coolest Food Delivery App’ (Mr D Food), ‘Coolest Gaming Console’ (PlayStation 4 Pro), and ‘Coolest Politician’ (Nelson Mandela).

Nike was once again awarded as the overall ‘coolest’ brand among South African youth.

South Africa’s youth appear to have clear favourites when it comes to banks, with FNB retaining its first place position.

Capitec, Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank also retained their positions in the top five.

Rank	2019	2018
1	FNB	FNB
2	Capitec Bank	Capitec Bank
3	Standard Bank	Standard Bank
4	Absa	Absa
5	Nedbank	Nedbank
6	African Bank	African Bank
7	Old Mutual Bank	Bidvest Bank
8	Al Baraka Bank	Investec
9	Habib Bank AG Zurich	Rand Merchant Bank
10	–	Other

Most satisfied customers

In a separate survey run earlier this year, FNB and Capitec were rated as the banks with the happiest customers, topping the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi).

The SA-csi is a causal model that links customer expectations, perceived quality, and perceived value to customer satisfaction (the SA-csi score), which in turn is linked to customer complaints (and recovery), and customer loyalty intentions.

It is the largest and most comprehensive survey of its kind for the banking sector on a national basis, surveying 15,542 consumers from lower, middle and upper retail banking segments.

#	Bank	2018 score	2019 score	Change
1	Capitec	85.3	84.9	-0.4
2	FNB	81.0	81.5	+0.5
3	Nedbank	76.3	79.3	+3.0
	Industry Average	77.0	78.8	*+1.8*
4	African Bank	81.0	78.1	-2.9
5	Standard Bank	75.2	77.0	+1.8
6	Absa	73.3	76.3	+3.0

In the latest index, Capitec once again leads the overall customer satisfaction score across all brands by a significant margin for the sixth consecutive year, although with a slight decline on its previous score.

Capitec is followed by FNB, also in a leading position, and Nedbank and African Bank overall ‘on par’ with the industry average for 2018. Absa and Standard Bank follow in a benchmark category that places them below industry average.

“Capitec continues to perform exceptionally well in terms of overall customer satisfaction. Expectations are always based on personal need of the consumer, and Capitec has nailed it in terms of understanding its target markets, their needs, and how the value proposition filters into that,” Consulta said.

“The Capitec promise of simple, easy, and affordable banking is strongly backed by its ability to deliver in terms of processes, people, and systems.”

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