The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has released the latest results of a large-scale survey which aims to determine and rank the service quality of current account providers for both consumers and businesses in Great Britain and Ireland.

Specifically, the survey asks personal and small business current account holders how likely they are to recommend their provider to another friend, relative, or business. The survey also covers the quality of online and mobile provision, branch and overdraft services and, for small businesses, the quality of the relationship management they receive.

The results of the 11th instalment of the survey — which has been undertaken since 2016 — found that Monzo and Starling once again secured the top two positions for overall service quality satisfaction for both personal and business current account holders in Great Britain.

Behind the challenger banks was First Direct in third place for personal current account service satisfaction, and Handelsbanken ranking third for business current account service satisfaction.

At the bottom of the table this year for overall service quality satisfaction for business current account holders was Virgin Money, The Co-operative Bank, and HSBC UK at 13th, 14th, and 15th place respectively.

Meanwhile, TSB, Virgin Money, and the Royal Bank of Scotland were listed as the current bottom-ranked personal current account providers when it comes to service quality satisfaction in Great Britain.

Speaking on the latest results, Adam Land, senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis at the CMA, said: “How banks treat their customers can make an enormous difference to their daily lives, particularly when people and small businesses are feeling the pinch.

“These results make it easy for people to see in branch, or at the click of a button, which banks are listening to their customers and meeting their needs. This puts pressure on poorly performing banks to raise their game. If the service and quality offered by your bank has been below par, then you may well be able to do better by making a switch.”

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The data derived from the latest survey further highlights how the two digital challenger banks have made a profound impact in the UK’s finance and banking sector in a relatively short amount of time.

In fact, since February 2022, Monzo and Starling are the providers that have held the top two positions for overall service quality for personal current account holders in Great Britain. Prior to that, in August 2021, Monzo took first place while Starling and First Direct took joint second.

Regarding overall service quality for business current account holders in Great Britain, Monzo and Starling have held the top two positions since August 2022, which was when Monzo first became a participating provider. Starling became a participating provider in August 2021.

The results of the latest survey — as well as previous ones, too — corroborate with separate research that DIGIT reported on just before the turn of the New Year. It found that Monzo led the way for good online customer service with 83% of its customers satisfied with this, and with Revolut coming in second with 78% of respondents stating they are happy.