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Public trust in financial institutions has remained stable over the past year, while trust in other sectors (such as politics and the public sector) has decreased. This has emerged from a DNB survey held among more than 2,200 Dutch households.
Trust in the financial institutions among Dutch households remained stable over the past year. Figure 1 shows that in 2022, 51% of those surveyed had either fairly high or high trust in financial institutions, which is comparable to results from the previous survey in 2021. In contrast, trust in national politics, the civil service and business continued to decline in 2022. Public trust in business is still slightly higher than trust in financial institutions, however. A year ago, 42% reported having trust in politics, against 29% now. Trust in big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon remained the lowest at 19%.
Share of respondents with fairly high or very high trust
© DNB
Notes: Trust in financial institutions is the average level of trust in banks, insurers and pension funds, and has been measured in the same way as trust in the other entities since 2019. Trust in big technology companies has been measured since 2018.
Source: DNB Trust Survey 2008-2022.
Specifically, the survey shows that Dutch households have trust in the financial health of banks, insurers and pension funds. Figure 2 shows that trust in the financial health of banks, insurers and pension funds dropped sharply during the credit crisis in 2008, and has been gradually regaining ground ever since. 70% of respondents in 2022 were mostly or fully confident that Dutch banks would always be able to repay their funds held on deposit. A similar percentage applies to confidence that insurance firms will continue to meet their payment obligations. Households have slightly less confidence in pension funds’ ability to meet their commitments to pensioners, although this confidence has increased in recent years.
Share of respondents that are mostly or fully confident
© DNB
Source: DNB Trust Survey 2006-2022.
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