There are few businesses you put your trust in more than your bank. After all, you rely on it to protect your money and provide a sense of security for your overall financial life. But banks have proven to be no strangers to scandals, security beaches, and all sorts of other questionable business practices. So, what is the most—and least—trusted bank in the U.S.? We consulted the latest Axios Harris Poll 100 to find out.
The Axios Harris Poll 100, based on an annual survey of 42,935 Americans, uses a two-step process to rank the reputations of some of biggest brands in the U.S. First, the survey determined the public's "top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter in society," deeming them the 100 "most visible companies." These companies were then rated by a second group of Americans using seven key dimensions of reputation—affinity, ethics, growth, products/service, citizenship, vision, and culture. The brands were scored on a 100-point scale where the lower the score meant the poorer the reputation.
From the 100 brands ranked, which included everything from media companies to wireless carriers, we picked out the five financial institutions on the list and ranked them from the lowest score to the highest, AKA the worst reputation to best. Read on to discover the most and least trusted bank in the U.S.
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5 | Wells Fargo
iStockReputation score (out of 100): 63.0
Wells Fargo has made its fair share of headlines for less than trustworthy business moves—from a major scandal several years ago in which the bank admitted to "opening millions of fake accounts, as well as forcing customers to pay for unneeded auto insurance or charging unnecessary mortgage fees" to most recently when the bank announced it would be shutting down all personal lines of credit, CNN reported last week. So, it's no surprise it's overall reputation score of 63.0, which is considered "poor" by the poll's standards, is the lowest of all the banks on the list of the 100 most visible companies.
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4 | Bank of America
iStockReputation score (out of 100): 70.5
Bank of America's overall reputation score of 70.5 was just enough to be considered "good." And the bank is 10 spots higher on the overall ranking of the 100 most visible companies from last year. Still, it scored lower than three out of the five banks on this list and only earned a "fair" score in two out of the seven main categories—affinity (69.7) and citizenship (67.7).
3 | JPMorgan Chase
iStockReputation score (out of 100): 74.5
JPMorgan Chase has also been in the headlines in recent days—from data breaches to a new cryptocurrency venture. The latter of which makes sense when you consider that the bank's highest score of the seven pillars is in the growth department (79.4).
The bank also jumped eight spots from last year's list to rank 54th overall.
2 | Citigroup
Isabelle OHara / Shutterstock.comReputation score (out of 100): 75.7
Citigroup's overall score of 75.7 is considered "very good"—one of only two banks on this list to receive such a distinction. The company also received "very good" scores in the growth (79.7), products/service (78.6), vision (77.8), and culture (75.7) categories.
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1 | USAA
Jarrett Homan / Shutterstock.comReputation score (out of 100): 79.2
USAA received the highest reputation score of any bank on the list of the 100 most visible companies of 2021, ranking number 12 overall. The military-focused bank jumped nine spots from last year's list where it ranked 21, and also scored especially high in the growth (82.9) and vision (82.5) categories.
