Figure 19: Independent Lending Review public website responses, Q2 2013–Q3 2013 900 848 800 187 700 600 41 63 557 500 400 300 200 100 0 All respondents Incomplete responses Non-SMEs Non-RBS/NatWest RBS / NatWest SME customers customers Source: Independent Lending Review public website (open from 7th August 2013 to 11th October 2013) All survey responses were reviewed on an individual basis, as well as being used in aggregated analyses. When drawing conclusions from aggregate outputs, consideration was given to the fact that the set of responses received was unlikely to be wholly representative of the overall sentiment of the customer base (i.e. there is a skew in responses towards those customers that feel strongly about the issue, of which the majority will have submitted negative responses). D.1.1.2. INDEPENDENT LENDING REVIEW RBS CUSTOMER SURVEY A direct survey of RBS SME customers was commissioned as part of the Independent Lending Review. This comprised a large-scale customer telephone survey conducted by Business Development Research Consultants (BDRC) Continental, in partnership with the Review team. The survey’s purpose was to provide the Review team with an additional source to inform the view of SMEs’ progress through the end-to-end lending process with RBS, as well as to provide an up to date barometer of customer sentiment on a range of topics related to RBS and its SME lending activity. The survey drew its respondent sample from previous respondents to the SME Finance Monitor (see Section D.2.1.1 for further discussion of the SME Finance Monitor). SMEs that had completed a previous SME Finance Monitor survey between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013, identified themselves as banking with RBS, and also indicated that they were happy to be re-contacted, were considered for the survey. Over 3,000 SMEs met these criteria, of which 504 SMEs were surveyed on a randomly selected basis. The results were weighted to fairly reflect the overall distribution of SMEs within the RBS customer base. As with the SME Finance Monitor itself, analysis and conclusions drawn from the Independent Lending Review RBS customer survey were discussed with BDRC Continental to ensure that they were fair and based on reasonable interpretations of the response data.
Figure 19: Independent Lending Review public website responses, Q2 2013–Q3 2013 900 848 800 700 600 187 41 63 557 500 400 300 200 100 0 All respondents Incomplete responses Non-SMEs Non-RBS/NatWest customers RBS / NatWest SME customers Source: Independent Lending Review public website (open from 7th August 2013 to 11th October 2013) All survey responses were reviewed on an individual basis, as well as being used in aggregated analyses. When drawing conclusions from aggregate outputs, consideration was given to the fact that the set of responses received was unlikely to be wholly representative of the overall sentiment of the customer base (i.e. there is a skew in responses towards those customers that feel strongly about the issue, of which the majority will have submitted negative responses). D.1.1.2. INDEPENDENT LENDING REVIEW RBS CUSTOMER SURVEY A direct survey of RBS SME customers was commissioned as part of the Independent Lending Review. This comprised a large-scale customer telephone survey conducted by Business Development Research Consultants (BDRC) Continental, in partnership with the Review team. The survey’s purpose was to provide the Review team with an additional source to inform the view of SMEs’ progress through the end-to-end lending process with RBS, as well as to provide an up to date barometer of customer sentiment on a range of topics related to RBS and its SME lending activity. The survey drew its respondent sample from previous respondents to the SME Finance Monitor (see Section D.2.1.1 for further discussion of the SME Finance Monitor). SMEs that had completed a previous SME Finance Monitor survey between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013, identified themselves as banking with RBS, and also indicated that they were happy to be re-contacted, were considered for the survey. Over 3,000 SMEs met these criteria, of which 504 SMEs were surveyed on a randomly selected basis. The results were weighted to fairly reflect the overall distribution of SMEs within the RBS customer base. As with the SME Finance Monitor itself, analysis and conclusions drawn from the Independent Lending Review RBS customer survey were discussed with BDRC Continental to ensure that they were fair and based on reasonable interpretations of the response data.
Sir-Andrew-Large-RBS-Independent-Lending-Review-Report.docx