Trust in financial services: Impact of institutional trust and dispositional trust on trusting belief

Abstract

Trust is important in strengthening the relationship bond between firms (trustees) and customers (trustors) generally and has been identified as having a particularly crucial role to play in the financial services sector given the damaging impact of recent turbulence and uncertainty on consumer confidence. This article reports on the findings of a study, which draws from the interdisciplinary convergent theories of trust to examine how two key constructs from this literature (that is, institutional trust and dispositional trust) influence consumers’ trusting belief about their main bank. Data was gathered through a survey distributed to a convenience sample of UK-based employees working for a large corporation. The findings highlight the importance of structural assurance and to a lesser extent situation normality on trust. Nevertheless consumers remain unconvinced that their main banks share the same values as their own and that their communications are absolutely transparent.