In 2022, 45 percent of adults with a savings account had only one of those products in the United Kingdom (UK). That referred to credit union savings accounts, cash ISAs, or NS&I bonds. A further 44 percent of UK adults held two to four saving accounts.

This statistic displays the number of adults in the United Kingdom (UK) that in October 2017 had a form of retail banking or savings account. Of the UK's total population approximately ** percent had any day-to-day account, amounting to approximately **** individuals. **** million UK adults as of October 2017 had a current account.

The United Kingdom's banking landscape in 2024 revealed a competitive field dominated by established institutions, with ******** leading the pack with ** million customers worldwide. **** followed closely with ** million customers, showcasing the enduring strength of traditional banks despite the rise of digital challengers. Interestingly, customer numbers don't necessarily correlate with satisfaction, as online banks like Starling Bank, First Direct, and Monzo Bank topped the charts for customer contentment. Market dominance and financial performance While ******** boasts the largest customer base, HSBC maintains its position as the UK's largest bank by market capitalization. As of December 31, 2024, HSBC's market value reached approximately ****** billion U.S. dollars, rebounding to pre-pandemic levels and solidifying its status as Europe's largest bank by market value. This financial strength is further reflected in HSBC's annual revenue, which towered at **** billion British pounds in 2024. Digital transformation and customer retention The banking sector's shift towards digital services has led to widespread branch closures among the UK's "big four" banks, with Barclays, Lloyds, and NatWest each shuttering over 1,000 locations between 2017 and 2024. This transition, while improving efficiency, has also resulted in significant job losses. Despite these changes, some traditional banks have managed to maintain strong customer loyalty. Nationwide, for instance, led UK banks in net current account gains in the third quarter of 2024, attracting over ****** new customers through the Current Account Switch Service. However, digital challengers like Revolut have made significant inroads, with the London-based neobank reporting over ** million global customers by November 2024, highlighting the growing appeal of digital-only banking solutions.

Over a quarter of households in the United Kingdom (UK) had less than 1,500 British pounds in savings and investments in the financial year of 2021/22. Meanwhile, a fifth of all households had at least 30,000 British pounds saved up, a percentage that has not changed since 2020/21. In 2021/22, Northern Ireland was one of the regions in the United Kingdom with the lowest ownership rate of ISAs and other savings accounts.

Online banking usage in the UK increased steadily between 2007 and 2023. In 2007, around one third of the adult British population used online banking, which increased up to 87 percent in 2023. Banking and financial services are typically among the first industries to embrace technological advances; starting as far back in time as the appearance of automated teller machines (ATMs) and credit cards. Ever since the first secure Internet systems for financial operations became available on a large scale, accessing of one's bank account online to carry out transactions, pay off credit cards, establish credit lines or invest savings became one of the fastest growing areas of Internet activities. Leading online banks in the UK There are several online banks headquartered in the UK, including Revolut, Monzo, Starling, Monese, and Atom Bank. As of 2024, Monzo was the most well-known, popular, and used online bank, followed by Starling and Revolut. Established in 2015, Monzo is one of a growing number of disruptor or challenger banks which run accounts online through mobile apps. Online banking in Europe Across Europe, online banking penetration varied greatly by country in 2024. Nordic countries all had online banking penetration rates of over 90 percent. In stark contrast, Albania and Montenegro had penetration rates lower than 15 percent.

Credit cards per capita in the United Kingdom (UK) decreased to reach a value of slightly over one card per person in 2021. Debit cards were found more often in the country, as debit card penetration reached around 1.9 that year. The numbers provided are estimates, based on the figures central banks have to supply. Owning a payment card does not immediately indicate it gets used often, as there are large differences within Europe when it comes to the use of certain payment methods.

This statistic illustrates the banking population in Europe in 2021, by country. Statista estimates that of Germany's total population of approximately **** million individuals in 2021, an estimated **** million had a bank account. The United Kingdom and France finished the top three for banking populations with **** million and **** million individuals respectively.

For most banks to become leaders on a global scale they must branch out their operations. The French multi-national bank BNP Paribas operates in over ** countries worldwide. In fact, all of Europe's largest banks operate on a global scale.

The widespread adoption of online banking, offering unprecedented speed and convenience, has dramatically reduced the importance of physical bank branches. This shift is particularly evident among the UK's "big four" banks - Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, and NatWest. Between 2017 and 2024, Barclays, Lloyds, and NatWest closed more than ***** branches nationwide, while their major competitors also implemented substantial branch closure programs. This marked decline in physical locations reflects the banking sector's increasing pivot toward digital services. Does the closure of branches affect employment? The impact of bank branch closures extends beyond customer inconvenience in rural and regional areas. The human cost has been particularly severe, with significant job losses across the banking sector. The number of employees in European credit institutions decreased by approximately ******* between 2009 and 2023, with UK banks contributing heavily to this decline. Two striking examples are Lloyds and NatWest Group, both of which reduced their workforce by nearly half between 2012 and 2023, highlighting the dramatic transformation of traditional banking employment. Key reasons behind closures While the decline of physical bank branches is frequently attributed to the growing popularity of digital banking - with most UK account holders now favoring mobile and online services over in-person banking - this only tells part of the story. Branch closures also represent a strategic cost-cutting measure as banks face increasing pressure on profit margins. This downsizing aligns with broader regulatory requirements for European banks to maintain stronger capital reserves, a safeguard implemented to prevent future financial crises.

In 2017, around *********** adults in the United Kingdom had no cash savings. Once you are an adult, having savings is a key element of preparing yourself for life’s little and big surprises. Building cash savings can be a difficult task as it takes careful planning, and time to accumulate. Those aged between 18 and 24 years of age in the United Kingdom have the lowest mean amount in cash savings of any age group. As of 2017, one in eight UK adults had no cash savings, with a further ** percent of the population having between zero and ************ British pounds.

With age comes wisdom

The correlation between age and the mean amount of cash savings can be somewhat linked to individuals’ priorities. Younger people will be looking to put money towards large items such as a car, home or travel whereas those aged over ** have not only had time to build their savings, but also are more likely to have no unsecured debt, and to own a property outright.

Rainy day fund

As we get older, the importance of having some form of savings for an emergency, or unforeseen circumstances becomes clearer. Planning for the long-term becomes of higher importance as we age. Despite this, as of 2018, just over half of the adult population had adequate savings for retirement.

The gross national savings rate in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.5 percentage points. The savings rate is estimated to amount to 14.81 percent in 2029. The savings rate here refers to the gross domestic saving by the state, private households, and corporations and is shown as a percentage of total gross domestic product (GDP).The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

In December 2024, the personal saving rate in the United States amounted to 3.8 percent. That was slightly lower figure than a year earlier. The personal saving rate is calculated as the ratio of personal savings to disposable personal income. Within the topic of personal savings in the U.S., there are different goals and reasons for saving. What are personal savings? Saving refers to strategies of accumulating capital for future use by either not spending a part of one’s income or cutting down on certain costs. Saved money may be preserved as cash, put on a deposit account, or invested in various financial instruments. Investing usually incorporates some level of risk which means that part of the invested money can be gone. An example of a relatively safe investment would be saving bonds, such as the debt securities issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Saving trends in the U.S. and abroad Looking at the personal saving rate in the United States throughout the past decades, it can be observed that savings had been decreasing until the mid-2000s, and they increased after the 2008 financial crisis. Still, the largest savings rates were reached in 2020 and 2021. The reason for that increase in the savings rate that year might be related to the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of personal savings in the United Kingdom has also followed a similar trend. Although events like the COVID-19 pandemic may have affect many countries in a similar way, the ability to save, as well as the average savings as a share of personal income across countries can vary significantly depending on multiple factors affecting each territory.

The average subscription in cash individual savings accounts (ISAs) in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2022/23 was higher than a year earlier. Subscriptions into adults' cash ISAs were over five times higher than the amount of money going into that type of junior ISAs. The financial year of 2014/15 saw the highest average subscription with over ***** British pounds into adult cash ISAs. Subscriptions refer to the payments that individuals make into their accounts. However, every year a limit is set to how much money can be saved up.

In Europe, the variation in average amounts of financial wealth per adult varied considerably as of 2022, from approximately ******* U.S. dollars in Switzerland to roughly ***** U.S. dollars in Azerbaijan. In Europe, the overall average financial wealth per adult as of 2022 was ****** U.S. dollars. In terms of private wealth, Europe held the second highest value in the world, after North America. What is financial wealth? Financial wealth, also known as financial assets or liquid assets can include wealth that an individual has in the forms of cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and bank deposits. In addition to financial wealth, wealth can also be measured in other assets, called non-financial wealth. This includes physical assets, such as real estate, land, vehicles, jewelry, and art, just to name a few. Where do most wealthy individuals live? Individuals with a net worth over *********** U.S. dollars are called high-net worth individuals (HNWI). The United States was the home country to the highest number of HNWIs in 2021. China followed, although their number of HNWIs did not even reach ********* of the number in the United States. In Europe, Switzerland is the country with the highest average financial wealth per adult, but with its small population size, the number of HNWIs does not come near the numbers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy – the European countries with the highest number of HNWIs. Considering Switzerland’s small population size, however, it is the country in the world with the highest proportion of millionaires.

The use of online and mobile banking is expected to increase steadily between 2021 and 2024, with the Asian market being the largest. In 2020, Far East and China accounted for over *** million active online banking users. This figure is predicted to reach nearly * billion by 2024. Although Asia was the largest market for online banking in 2020, the countries with the largest online banking penetration rate were all European. South Korea ranked sixth, with a penetration rate of ** percent. What are the benefits of online banking? Online banking comes with many advantages. On the one hand, it provides customers with an easy and fast way to conduct banking operations, allowing them to avoid visiting banks’ physical branches. Moreover, as more and more customers conduct their banking operations remotely, banks can decrease the number of physical branches and reduce maintenance costs. Over the last ten years, the number of branches of FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States decreased by more than ******. Among the most demanded features of mobile banking, U.S. mobile banking users perceived the possibility of detecting breaches in one's Social Security number as the most valuable one. Digital-only banks Digital-only banks, also known as challengers or neobanks, are recently-established banks that have no physical branches and provide banking facilities only through digital platforms. These banks leverage their low maintenance costs and streamlined operations to challenge the large incumbents that dominate the banking sector. The market size of digital-only banks worldwide stood at roughly **** billion U.S. dollars in 2021, and it is predicted to soar to **** trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. As of 2021, the Brazilian Nubank ranked first among the most valuable independent digital-only banks worldwide, followed by the U.K.-based Revolut and the San Francisco-headquartered Chime.

In 2007, the total number of employees of the NatWest Group almost doubled, reaching the highest of the observed time period, with 226,400 people employed. Since then, the number of people employed by the group has continuously decreased, reaching a total of 59.7 thousand employees in 2024. NatWest Group, named Royal Bank of Scotland until 2020, has one of the highest customer counts of any of the UK’s leading banks. Customers gained and lost As many as 100,000 people in the United Kingdom switch from their main current account provider every month. Although NatWest Group boasts millions of customers across the UK, it has seen a negative change of customers gained or lost since the second quarter or 2018. Bank employment in Europe The financial services sector in the UK has over one million employees. Behind Germany and France, the United Kingdom has the third highest number of employees in the banking sector in Europe.

In 2024/25 approximately 2.9 million emergency food parcels were distributed from Trussell Trust food banks in the United Kingdom, compared with 3.1 million in 2023/24.

Google Pay was used more often for in-store payments in both India and Poland than in either the United States or the UK in 2024. This reveals itself when comparing two questions from Statista's Consumer Insights as ** out of 100 consumers from India replied they had used Google Pay. India ranks within the top three of countries in the world with the highest penetration of proximity mobile payments.

How many people use Google Pay?

Google's mother company Alphabet does not share user figures of Google Pay. This is because the company does not charge transaction fees, except in the United States when clients transfer money from a Google Pay account to a bank account with a debit card. A 2022 forecast predicted the number of Google Pay users in the United States would grow by more than *** million between 2022 and 2026. This prediction was from before May 2022, however. That month, Google announced it would replace Google Pay altogether with a resurrected Google Wallet app in ** countries across the world, except the U.S., Singapore, and India.

Google Pay used more often on websites outside the United States Website tracking focusing on payment technologies indicates Google Pay is used more often on websites from Canada, New Zealand or Ireland than on U.S. websites or platforms from Europe. Nearly **** percent of merchants in Italy with at least one Payment Acceptance or Payment Processor technology up to August 2023 had Google Pay on their website. Websites from India ranked relatively low in this list, potentially indicating Google Pay is either used more as an offline payment method or that Google Pay is integrated within UPI in the country.

Barclays Group, one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom, employed 43,184 people across the country in 2024. The UK division accounted for more than 50 percent of all employees of the banking group. India and the United States accounted for the next highest employment figures globally. Leading UK banks by customers For Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Nationwide, there was an increase in overall customer numbers between 2007 and 2024. As of 2024, Barclays had the highest number of customers, followed by HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group. Barclays, a global bank Barclays Plc operated in a total of 38 countries globally, the eleventh highest of Europe's leading banks in 2023. In terms of total assets, Barclays was the fifth-largest bank in Europe in 2023. As with most other leading banks in the UK and across Europe, the total value of assets owned by Barclays has decreased over several years.