Financial Services in the UK

Sector average score

Knowledge & Expertise

Style of Communication

Speed of Resolving Problems

Valuing the Customer

Nationwide has made it six straight quarters at the top of the Financial Services in the UK rankings – but this wave there’s a difference.

In Q2 2025's rankings, First Direct has caught up, tying for first place by matching Nationwide's score of 72 – an all-time high for this table.

In fact, First Direct has the edge in Knowledge & Expertise, beating Nationwide by a valuable point, but this is the other way around in Valuing the Customer.

Elsewhere, Barclays has punctured the top three by adding an impressive +3 points to its Overall Effort Score, sending Starling and Lloyds down into joint fourth.

Honourable mentions also go out to Sainsbury’s Bank and Virgin Money, which both add +3 to their Overall Effort Scores wave on wave.

Executive summary

How to use this Index

Last updated: Apr 2025

Next update: Jul 2025

Executive summary

What’s Nationwide’s and First Direct’s secret in the Style of Communication pillar? These two brands are +6 above the next nearest competitor. The next 11 brands in the table are then within four points of each other. What are these two frontrunners doing to be so successful?
We say

‘Style of Communication’ is hinged on how politely agents communication and how readily available brands make other languages. Nationwide and First Direct score above and beyond in these metrics, demonstrating that other brands should focus on these markers to keep competitive.

How to use the Customer Effort Index

Customer Effort Scores for the quarter are presented in the rankings, ordered by highest Overall Effort Score first, to show which brand scored highest with its customers for that period. Individual brand ratings against the four pillars take us underneath that Overall Effort Score, with brand-specific explanatory analysis from the CEI Editorial team.

You can use the display above to toggle between score, ranking and individual pillars. Clicking 'Performance Tracker' enables you to analyse the performance over time.

The Customer Effort Index is calculated using a self-referential scale that is recomputed every wave based on what the minimum and maximum values are. This enables us to see how each brand is performing compared to the others within the data set. See About for more on the methodology.