Only 17 percent of Germans are satisfied with their overall financial situation. And they have high expectations from their banks. A significant majority of over 80 percent expect banking services to be comprehensive, but low-cost or free-of-charge. Those were the core results of a representative GfK Market Research survey, commissioned by Allianz and Dresdner Bank. Occasion of the study was the current debate over the significance of financial markets and the consolidation of the banking market in Germany. "Clients have to have a voice in the debate," says Michael Heise, Chief Economist at Allianz and Dresdner Bank, "because they’ll be the ones who play the crucial role in deciding the success of potential changes."

According to the study, only 15 percent of banking clients in Germany are satisfied with their financial options for saving money for major purchases, higher aspirations, or just a rainy day. Twenty-six percent feel that their retirement coverage is satisfactory. Thirty-six percent feel that their private risk coverage protects them adequately against accident, illness or misfortune.

The low levels of satisfaction with people’s own financial situation contrasts with their high expectations from banking products and services. Respondents rated low prices and good terms for checking accounts at the top of the list (86 percent), followed by transparent pricing and no-charge consultation (80 percent each).

Good customer service continues to be a high priority. Eighty-three percent of the respondents want capable, comprehensive advice, 70 percent want convenient locations regionally, and 67 percent want a familiar, consistent contact person.

At the same time, only one-third or fewer were willing to pay more for banks to continue offering all services nearby (33 percent), or to keep their bank competitive even though it forgoes risks on the capital markets (34 percent). Likewise, only one in three clients would pay more to preserve jobs (33 percent), and only 29 percent would pay for independent consulting.

Two-thirds of the respondents were worried that the crisis in the financial markets might have an impact on their own situation. Interestingly, they were most concerned about retirement coverage. "Even if these fears are largely groundless, they prove how far German banking clients have already moved away from the all-inclusive coverage mentality associated with government programs," says Heise. "Matters concerning the capital market are no longer an esoteric subject for specialists – they affect broad strata of the population directly, as investors who are saving for retirement on their own responsibility. That’s an important result of the survey."

Customers think banks could avoid crises in the financial markets better by setting their own specific roles for risk management (78 percent), by thinking long-term and avoiding short-term risk (75 percent), by focusing better on the customer (75 percent), and through more intensive supervision (74 percent).

About 60 percent believe strong, independent banks serve as guarantors for economic growth in Germany, and for good, low-cost, reliable products for clients. This attitude is only slightly more marked among clients of private banks than among clients of savings associations, credit unions, and agricultural savings cooperatives (64 vs. 57 percent). On the other hand, 49 percent of those surveyed are also skeptical about bank mergers – they worry about branch closures and layoffs.

"Clients’ high expectations show what direction the German banking market should be developing in," says Heise. "A customer orientation comes from competition. Good service and products with above-average returns combined with low prices can be offered only by those banks that for their own part are well equipped to deal with competition. That’s why banks need efficient structures and business success."

Interestingly, as the German banking market consolidates, clients are also less concerned about their bank’s nationality than about its customer orientation: 49 percent of clients place importance on German ownership, while 55 percent consider a bank’s customer orientation more important than its nationality.

The survey was conducted by GfK Market Research from May 16 to 21, 2008, among 1,014 women and men age 18 and above ("financial decision makers in German households"). Seventy-two percent of those surveyed were clients of savings associations, credit unions, or agricultural savings cooperatives; 28 percent were clients of private banks.


The results presented here are statements by German banking clients, not by Allianz SE or Dresdner Bank AG about a potential bank consolidation or its probability. 

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