Dutch households' trust in financial institutions has remained stable over the past year, despite the recent problems faced by banks in the United States and Switzerland. During that period, households did think slightly more often about the possibility of Dutch banks failing. This has emerged from a DNB survey held among more than 2,200 households.
DNB measures Dutch households' trust in financial institutions, such as banks, pension funds and insurers, every spring. This year, this survey was held in the second half of March, which happened to coincide with the bankruptcy of US Silicon Valley Bank and the takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by UBS in Switzerland.
The survey results reveal that trust in financial institutions among Dutch households remained stable over the past year. Figure 1 shows that 52% of those surveyed had either fairly high or very high trust in financial institutions. The remaining share have little or no trust in them at all. In contrast, trust in business and national politics has fallen over the past year. In 2023, 22% reported having trust in politics, down from 29% in 2022. Trust in DNB is at the same level as in spring 2022 (73% have fairly high or very high trust), after being at a lower level in autumn 2022. One possible explanation for this dip is inflation, which peaked in autumn 2022 (see Trust in central bank and national politics has fallen due to high inflation).
Share of respondents with fairly high or very high trust
Furthermore, the survey shows that households have trust in the financial health of Dutch banks, insurers and pension funds. Figure 2 shows that in 2023, 62% of respondents have substantial or full confidence that pension funds will be able to fulfil their commitments to pensioners. Also, 68% of respondents are confident that insurers can meet their payment obligations to policyholders.
Confidence that Dutch banks will be able to repay the money entrusted to them at all times is at a similar level. Confidence that one's own bank is capable of doing so is even slightly higher at 75%. Closer inspection reveals that respondents who completed the questionnaire prior to the announcement of UBS's takeover of Credit Suisse were slightly more confident in their own bank's financial health than those who completed the survey after the announcement (77% against 73%). Over the past year, households have also thought slightly more often about the possibility that Dutch banks could fail. In 2023, 38% of those surveyed said they thought about this occasionally or very often in the past year, up from 34% in spring 2022.
Share of respondents that have substantial or full confidence
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