 Three years ago, we published an entry on Positioning retail bank brands in Hong Kong, where we shared some results from a Manifesto dip stick poll on perceptions of local banks.
This year, we recently had another opportunity to ask 70 local consumers what they thought of some retail banks. Did the top four retail banks retain their positions from 2007?
The survey results show that HSBC, Hang Seng, Standard Chartered and Citibank have retained their top positions, as they garnered the most unaided brand mentions. 8 out of every 10 respondents (minimum personal monthly income of HK$40,000, male and female, married and single) mentioned HSBC without prompting. Other local or regional banks, BEA (7%), DBS (6%), Wing Hang (3%) and Dah Sing (1%), lagged significantly behind.
Bank of China (BOC) was the only Chinese bank mentioned when respondents were asked to name any three retail banks. 1 out of 4 respondents mentioned BOC, which isn’t bad considering that 1 out of 3 respondents mentioned Citibank.
 The respondents were also asked to name any three Chinese banks.
Not surprisingly, Bank of China had the most number of mentions (73%), followed by China Construction Bank (48%) and ICBC (42%). Bank of Communications and Citic Bank International lagged significantly behind.
The findings show that a small number of local and regional banks were also incorrectly lumped into the same category as “Chinese banks”. They are DBS, Dah Sing, Wing Hang and Fubon Bank.
This was quite surprising and points to the need for banks with lower recall to create distinctive brands for themselves. If consumers tend to trust large international or large local banks, a lack of awareness of a bank’s background may mean that consumers are less likely to have the level of trust needed to bank with these financial institutions.
 Loan-to-deposit ratios in Hong Kong have been increasing in 2010, possibly driven by growing mortgage loans in a rather hot property market.
In the area of personal loans, this group of higher-income earning respondents will resort to borrowing from banks during emergencies (39%). Some with a more entrepreneurial streak will start a business (22%) with funding from personal loans. Many told us that they preferred never having to borrow any money at all if possible.
13% said they would borrow to help pay off their taxes.
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