Northern Ireland’s largest locally-owned financial institution, Progressive Building Society, is one of the UK’s most ethical financial institutions, according to a new report.

In the survey which compared over 70 UK and global banking providers on five key categories – honesty, customer service, culture, supporting the economy and ethics the Progressive Building Society achieved a score of 98%, coming joint second.  It was the leading financial institution from Northern Ireland.

The report was developed by the bank based website ‘Move Your Money’ from evidence compiled by Ethical Consumer, the UKs leading alternative consumer organisation.

With assets of over £1.6bn and ranked in the top thirty banks and building societies across the UK, the Progressive achieved the top rating on culture, honesty and supporting the economy, one of only three providers to do so.  The report also highlighted that Progressive got full marks for customer service and stated that the building society ‘enjoyed glowing and heartfelt testimonials from its customers’.

Commenting, Darina Armstrong, Chief Executive, Progressive said, “These findings are an endorsement of the dedication, commitment and integrity of our staff across all our branches in Northern Ireland. There is an inbuilt ethos within Progressive to serve and support the local community and provide them with the choice and diversity that mutual ownership brings. 

“To achieve the top rating in standards including honesty, customer service, culture, supporting the economy and customer service is a powerful endorsement from the Northern Ireland public on the role we are playing in society.  As always we will continue to review how we can be more efficient, serve the local community and meet the expectations of our members.”

Ends

For further information, please contact The Progressive team at Aiken PR:Shane@aikenpr.com / John@aikenpr.com / 02890663000

Notes to editors:1. In the honesty category, the report used indicators for fines, use of tax havens, political lobbying and misleading advertising. In customer service, it at complaints, mis-selling PPI, referrals to the Financial Ombudsman and customer satisfaction. Culture looked at customer power, directors’ pay and bonuses, and the proportion of women on the board. Finally, it looked at whether the banks are too big to fail, work in risky ways, fail to support the real economy and have poor ethics.2. The evidence base that supports the Move Your Money Switching Scorecard was compiled by Ethical Consumer, the UKs leading alternative consumer organisation3. For further information visit www.moveyourmoney.org.uk