One in three French banking customers are unfaithful to their bank by opening current accounts elsewhere. Here is the list of brands whose users are most inclined to maintain several banking relationships.
Mutualist or commercial, national or regional, with agencies or without: the French retail banking landscape is today sufficiently varied for us to be spoiled for choice. Some, moreover, choose not to choose. A third of French users (34% precisely) have current accounts in several banks, according to the survey carried out by our partner Opinionway for the 2024 Bank Quality Awards (1). Clear, loyalty to a single bank, while it remains the dominant mode of consumption, is no longer the norm.
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Online banks: few loyal customers
This is not a surprise, the most unfaithful users are those of banks without branches. The prize goes to the customers of Fortuneo and of Monabanq: 91% of them have a current account in another bank. The figure is 88% among BforBank87% among BoursoBank and 84% among Hello bank. Logic: online banks remain overwhelmingly complementary establishments, where you open an account to test (and often collect a nice bonus) before, possibly, adopting. Some, therefore, go further and domicile their income there, a sign that this is the account they use on a daily basis. This is the case for 26% of Hello Bank customers, 23% of those of Fortuneo or 20% of those of BoursorBank. This still represents, for this last brand, more than a million customers.
In these online banks, which are all subsidiaries, the group logic sometimes applies. 30% of BforBank customers, for example, have an account with the parent company, Crdit Agricole. But this is not always the case: only 13% of BoursoBank customers have an account with Socit Générale, its sole shareholder. Much less than at Crdit Agricole (20%) and La Banque Postale (18%).
Finally, the multi-banking crosses between online banks exist. 21% of BforBank customers, 15% of those of Fortuneo, 14% of those of Hello bank and 13% of those of Monabanq have a current account with BoursoBank, the large market leader with more than 5 million customers. Among them, undoubtedly, a number of bounty hunters, always ready to open an account for a few dozen euros.
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Traditional banks: Socit Générale is the most deceived
On the side of traditional banks, the prize for infidelity goes to… General Society. A third of its customers (33% precisely) have multiple banks. Their other favorite bank? The postal bank. More generally, the latter attracts many unfaithful customers. A reminiscence, no doubt, of the time when La Poste was one of the rare brands (along with Caisse d’Epargne and Crdit Mutuel) to distribute Livret A. Behind SG, we find, among the list of unfaithful customers, LCL (27 %), CIC (22%), BNP Paribas (22%) and Banque Populaire (21%).
If the fidlit a single bank is a sign of satisfaction, then these are the most satisfied Caisse d’Epargne customers. Only 17% of them will look elsewhere. In the single-banking ranking, the mutual bank is ahead of Crdit Agricole (18%), Crdit Mutuel (18%) and La Banque Postale (19%).
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(1) OpinionWay survey for MoneyVox carried out from September 22 to October 16, 2023 among a sample of 5,028 banked French people recruited from a representative sample of the adult French population.