Understand the Financial Consumer: IRN Research Financial Services Report Series

Did you know: 57% of mortgage first-time-buyers bought their home using a Government support scheme; 41% of retail investors feel they can buy a financial product or invest without professional help; only 43% of consumers trust the banking industry to focus on the best interests of its customers and wider society; and 41% of all consumers feel they are confident, savvy buyers of insurance?

These results come from IRN’s consumer financial services report series, which presents detailed consumer research on retail financial markets with market analysis. The series helps you understand the financial consumer and how consumer financial services markets are developing, and equips you to exploit emerging trends, assess future opportunities and gain complete market intelligence. The series comes in three flavours:

• Consumer Research reports: detailed consumer research reports based on interviews with product holders and consumers at large.

• Market Trends reports: reports outlining the current state of the market, how the market is changing and how it will change in the future.

• Hybrid reports: reports containing both consumer research and market trends but not to the depth of either the Consumer Research Reports or the Market Trends Reports.

Consumer Research Reports

The consumer research reports cover four key areas of financial behaviour:

• Banking
• Investment and pensions
• Insurance
• Mortgages

The consumer research reports are individually structured but typically the mortgage and insurance reports map and analyse the consumer’s customer journey, covering:

• how the journey begins
• product discovery
• the factors that drive product choice (e.g. price, product features or brand)
• being a customer
• how the journey ends (e.g. provider switching)

The reports also include consumer profiles and the types of product owned.

The investment and pension reports are more diverse but typically these reports discuss:

• investor profiles
• where money is invested
• how investors approach investing money
• how investments are managed
• how investors judge what to buy

The Banking Reputation report differs from most other reports because it analyses consumer views of banks and the banking industry.

Consumer research for these titles is commissioned from MIS Group’s UK panel based on questionnaires designed by IRN Research.

SOME EXAMPLES OF FINDINGS FROM IRN’S CONSUMER RESEARCH