Banking statistics UK: Biggest banks by market share (2024)

The UK banking sector is the largest in Europe and one of the most prominent globally. 97% of the UK population have a day-to-day bank account, making them an inevitable part of our everyday life. We gathered the latest banking statistics on the biggest and best banks in the UK, along with carrying out our own research revealing how often people are switching their accounts, their opinions on well-established banks and digital banks as well as the most common reasons why users feel negative about their bank.

Overview

• HSBC has the largest market share of UK banks, at £125.5 billion in August 2023.
• The market share of the largest bank, HSBC, is over 4.5 times bigger than Lloyds, the second largest bank.
• Barclays was the UK bank with the most customers in 2022 at 48 million.
• Starling Bank is the bank with the highest customer satisfaction rate at 94%.
• 61% of Brits said they have switched banks at some point in their life, meaning 39% have never switched.
• More than half (52%) of high street bank customers have felt negatively towards their provider.
• Over a quarter of Brits (26%) switch banks every three to five years.
• Generation Z is the most likely generation to switch, with 57% switching their main account within two years of turning 18.
• A fifth of consumers stay with their bank for up to 20 years.

HSBC has the largest market share of UK banks by far, at approximately £125.5 billion in August 2023. This is more than 4.5 times larger than Lloyds, which has the second-largest market share at £27.4 billion. Barclays is in third place with £22.8 billion, followed closely by Natwest (£21.2 billion) and Standard Chartered Bank (£20.8 billion).

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Which UK bank has the most customers?

Barclays was the UK bank with the most customers in 2022, with 48 million people choosing to bank here. HSBC comes in second place with 39 million customers, while Lloyds is in third place with 26 million customers.

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However, the banks with the highest customer numbers don’t necessarily have the highest satisfaction. In the 2023 Finder Banking Customer Satisfaction Awards, Starling Bank had the highest customer satisfaction score at 94%.

Nationwide, which was in fifth place for customer numbers, had the second-highest customer satisfaction rate, and approximately 90% of their 16.3 million customers are satisfied with their current accounts.

Lloyds was in third place for customer numbers in 2022, with a total of 26 million customers, but they were in fourth place for customer satisfaction, with a rate of 88%.

As well as Starling Bank, other challenger digital banks scored well for customer satisfaction despite having lower customer numbers. This includes Revolut, which had a satisfaction rate of 89%, and Monzo, which had a satisfaction score of 86%.

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As of March 2023, Barclays was the bank which the highest number of people (15%) had their primary account with. HSBC and Lloyds came in a close second, with 12% of people each claiming that one of these was their primary bank.

Some of the least popular primary banks were Starling Bank, Yorkshire Bank and the Co-op Bank, as only 1% say that they use these as their primary bank.

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Brand value of UK banks

In 2023, HSBC had the highest brand value among banks of over £15 billion, but this is a 27% decrease from 2015 when its brand value was over £21 billion. Barclays has also had a decrease in its brand value, going from £11.1 billion in 2015 to £9.7 billion in 2023, a 12.7% drop.

The brand value of both Standard Chartered Bank and Natwest has grown over time. Natwest had an impressive increase in brand value of 92.4% between 2015 to 2023 and, as of 2023, it is currently valued at £5.8 billion.

In 2015, Standard Chartered had a brand value of a little over £4 billion, but after a 66% increase, the bank had a brand value of £6.7 billion in 2023.

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UK banks by total asset value

The bank with the largest amount of assets in 2022 was HSBC, with £2.45 trillion in assets. This is an 8% decrease from 2012 when HSBC had £2.69 trillion in assets. Barclays had £1.51 trillion worth of assets in 2022, the same as in 2012.

Both Lloyds and Natwest saw a decrease in their assets from 2012 to 2022. Natwest had a 45% decrease from £1.31 trillion in 2012 to £0.72 trillion in 2022. Lloyds saw a much smaller decrease of 5%, as their assets in 2012 were £0.93 trillion, but are now £0.88 trillion.

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Switching bank accounts: The latest statistics

According to our 2020 survey, 61% of Brits said they have switched banks at some point in their life. Out of those switching, 44% switch at least once every five years. The most common (26%) switching period was every three to five years. However, some consumers stay loyal to their banks for far longer, with a fifth of consumers staying with their bank for up to 20 years.

Of the 61% who said they do switch banks, we analysed their survey responses to reveal a breakdown of how frequently they switch. Find the breakdown of those figures in the data visualisation and table below.

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Generational differences: Younger generations are switching banks more often

Generation Z is the least likely generation so far to stick with the same bank, according to a Finder survey in 2020.

We found that 57% of gen Z adults switched their main account within two years of turning 18. By comparison, only 26% of millennials and 19% of generation X moved bank within two years of turning 18. The generation most likely to stick with their banks early into adulthood were baby boomers, with only 16% moving banks in the two years after they turned 18.

How many adults switched their main account within two years of turning 18?

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Customer opinions of banks

Customer sentiment towards 10 of the UK’s biggest high-street and digital-only banks fell by 7 percentage points (pp) during lockdown, according to our research with social analytics specialist BrandsEye.

This leaves overall consumer sentiment for the banking industry at -24% on a possible scale of +100% to -100% for the period between 1 March and 31 July 2020.

However, over 800,000 social media posts from customers revealed that digital banks saw a sentiment decline of almost three times that of high-street banks during the pandemic. On average digital-only banks’ customer sentiment fell by 14 percentage points compared to just 5 percentage points for high-street banks.

While this is a blow for digital-only banks, it should be noted that high-street banks had, and continue to have, a much lower overall sentiment (-13% vs -35% currently).

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Reasons high-street bank users feel negative about their bank

According to our research in 2020, more than half (52%) the customers of high-street banks felt negatively towards their provider. For the high-street bank customers, the main reasons for feeling negative about their bank were savings rates (29%) and customer service over the phone (14%), in-branch (14%) and digitally (11%).

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• Overview

  • 61% of Brits said they have switched banks at some point in their life.
  • Over a quarter of Brits (26%) switch every three to five years.
  • However, a fifth of consumers stay with their bank for up to 20 years.
  • Generation Z is the least likely generation so far to stick with the same bank, with 57% switching their main account with two years of turning 18
  • For the high-street bank customers, the main reasons for feeling negative about their bank were savings rates (29%)

  What are the biggest banks in the UK?

  Out of the hundreds of banks operating in the UK, we analysed the top five banks that are currently the market leaders in terms of size (using market capitalisation) in 2020.

  Back in 2020, HSBC was the largest bank in the UK, with a market cap of $161 billion. This was well over double the next biggest bank, Lloyds Banking Group, with a market cap of $61 billion. Barclays was the third biggest bank ($41 billion), followed by NatWest ($39 billion) and Standard Chartered ($30 billion).

  Bank	Market cap ($ billion)
  HSBC Holdings	161.35
  Lloyds Banking Group	60.95
  Barclays	41.23
  Natwest	38.94
  Standard Chartered	30.23

  UK current account switches (January to March 2020): Which banks are winning and losing?

  Looking at 2020’s third quarter (1 July – 30 September), Starling Bank and Monzo made net gains of 12,652 and 9,157 customers respectively, while Barclays, HSBC, NatWest and Santander all made net losses.

  Halifax had the highest overall increase in customers, with a net gain of 22,742 customers. However, Halifax was offering a switch deal during this period and was the only high-street bank to make considerable gains.

  See Also

  Safest place to keep your money

  The data shows a 65% drop in total switches during lockdown vs the first three months of 2020, which reflects a decline in the number of switching incentives while banks seemed to focus on their existing customers.

  Brand	Gains	Losses	Net Gains
  Halifax	33,327	10,585	22,742
  Starling Bank	14148	1496	12,652
  Monzo Bank	12451	3294	9,157
  Lloyds Bank	18,081	9,746	8,335
  Bank of Scotland	2,513	1,846	667
  Triodos Bank	736	70	666
  Ulster Bank	337	398	-61
  Danske	151	302	-151
  AIB Group (UK)	44	304	-260
  Bank of Ireland	57	331	-274
  Clydesdale Bank	3,296	3,622	-326
  Nationwide	9670	10598	-928
  Co-operative	1,803	3,433	-1,630
  Tesco Bank	55	2004	-1,949
  Barclays	5,572	9,067	-3,495
  RBS	3476	7171	-3,695
  TSB	3512	8517	-5,005
  NatWest	5904	15621	-9,717
  Santander	11018	21047	-10,029
  HSBC	5,998	20,861	-14,863

  What are the most famous consumer banks in the UK?

  Some banks have developed strong brands over many years of operating, while others (such as digital banks) have become known for being disrupters. Here we analyse which banking brands are the top 50 most well-known in the UK in 2020.

  Overall, in the UK, Barclays is the most famous bank, followed by Nationwide Building Society, HSBC and Santander. All of these banks have been operating for over 100 years, slowly building their brand presence and dominance in the banking sector.

  However, a few digital banks have managed to break into the top 50 most well-known banks without operating for such a long time. For example, Monzo (34th), Starling Bank (39th) and Revolut (49th) all broke into the top 50 most famous banks despite only being founded in the last 10 years.

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  Name	Rank (ALL)
  Barclays	1
  Nationwide Building Society	2
  HSBC UK	3
  Santander	4
  Barclaycard	5
  Halifax	6
  NatWest	7
  Royal Bank of Scotland	8
  TSB	9
  Lloyds Bank	10
  Bank of Scotland	11
  Co-operative Bank	12
  Tesco Bank	13
  Virgin Money	14
  First Direct	15
  Experian.com	16
  M&S Bank	17
  Yorkshire Building Society	18
  Cheltenham & Gloucester	19
  Clydesdale Bank	20
  National Savings and Investments	21
  Yorkshire Bank	22
  Metro Bank	23
  Citibank	24
  Britannia	25
  Skipton Building Society	26
  118 118 Money	27
  MBNA	28
  HBOS	29
  Coventry Building Society	30
  Park Christmas Savings	31
  Nutmeg	32
  Vanquis	33
  Monzo	34
  ING Direct	35
  Ocean Finance	36
  Coutts	37
  Lombard Direct	38
  Starling Bank	39
  Cahoot	40
  West Bromwich Building Society	41
  Smile	42
  Norwich and Peterborough	43
  Hitachi Personal Finance	44
  Abbey	45
  TotallyMoney	46
  Lex Autolease	47
  Zopa	48
  Revolut	49
  Atom	50

  Generational differences: The rising fame of digital banks for younger generations

  Digital banks seem to have found particular fame with younger generations. For example, for millennials, Monzo was ranked the 19th most well-known bank and Starling Bank was the 23rd most famous bank. In comparison, Monzo ranked 44th for gen X and 46th for baby boomers, while Starling Bank ranked 39th for gen X and 42nd for baby boomers.

  However, the most well-known bank among millennials was still Barclays. Lloyds Bank was the most famous among gen X and Halifax was the most famous among baby boomers.

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  Name	Rank (Millennials)	Rank (Gen X)	Rank (Baby boomers)
  Barclays	1	4	3
  Santander	2	7	10
  Lloyds Bank	3	1	5
  Barclaycard	4	5	7
  NatWest	5	2	2
  Halifax	6	3	1
  HSBC UK	7	6	11
  Nationwide Building Society	8	9	6
  Co-operative Bank	9	11	12
  Tesco Bank	10	13	14
  Royal Bank of Scotland	11	12	4
  Bank of Scotland	12	8	8
  TSB	13	10	9
  Virgin Money	14	14	13
  M&S Bank	15	17	17
  Experian.com	16	16	21
  Metro Bank	17	27	28
  First Direct	18	15	16
  Monzo	19	44	46
  118 118 Money	20	26	31
  Yorkshire Building Society	21	18	15
  Yorkshire Bank	22	20	20
  Starling Bank	23	39	42
  National Savings and Investments	24	24	19
  Citibank	25	25	26
  Britannia	26	21	24
  Clydesdale Bank	27	22	22
  Vanquis	28	31	35
  Nutmeg	29	38	39
  ING Direct	30	32	33
  Park Christmas Savings	31	30	34
  Ocean Finance	32	33	38
  Skipton Building Society	33	28	23
  Cheltenham & Gloucester	34	19	18
  MBNA	35	23	27
  Hitachi Personal Finance	36	41	44
  Revolut	37	-	-
  Coventry Building Society	38	36	29
  HBOS	39	29	25
  Smile	40	42	45
  Lombard Direct	41	37	32
  TotallyMoney	42	45	49
  Cahoot	43	35	37
  West Bromwich Building Society	44	40	36
  Coutts	45	34	30
  Norwich and Peterborough	46	43	40
  Lex Autolease	47	47	47
  Zopa	48	46	43
  Old Mutual	49	49	48
  gohenry	50	-	-
  Abbey	-	48	41
  Mint	-	50	50

  The UK’s favourite student banks

  Becoming a student means handling money independently for the first time for a lot of people. And even if you enter your degree feeling comfortable, living independently, often without the time to earn outside of your course, can see you quickly seeking financial support. For this reason, it’s worth thinking about which bank can offer you the most suitable student account.

  Popular features offered by student banks

  • 0% interest overdrafts
  • Cash incentives
  • Freebies like a complimentary student railcard

  With over a quarter (28%) of students choosing Santander, this is the most popular choice for student banking. With half the number of student accounts, HSBC is the second most popular option (15%). The third most popular student bank, with 11% of students, is Barclays.

  • Banks of choice
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  Bank	Percentage of students with accounts
  Santander	28%
  HSBC	15%
  NatWest	9%
  Barclays	11%
  Lloyds	9%
  Nationwide	9%
  Halifax	6%
  Other	9%
  RBS	2%
  TSB	2%

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