Samenvatting

Dutch households still appear to have no confidence in the financial sector. In the period of 2006 until 2009, public confidence in Dutch financial institutions fell sharply. In 2010, this somewhat rebounded, but since then remains substantially lower than before the start of the financial crisis.
This thesis focuses on consumer confidence in the financial sector in the Netherlands during the economic crisis and the measurements taken by ING and ABN AMRO in order to restore the consumer confidence. From 2008 until 2015, consumer confidence in the financial sector decreased as a result of the financial crisis and the political instability in the Netherlands and in Europe. ING and ABN AMRO have focused on transparency, paying attention to the consumer and reducing bonuses of top managers in order to regain consumer confidence. Have these developments changed the public opinion? Both ING and ABN AMRO have used stakeholder engagement (dialogues, in depth interviews and questionnaires) and transparency as the measures to restore the consumer confidence in the financial sector. Both banks have provided programs to make financial matters easily understandable in order to increase the transparency. Some of the measures taken by ING and ABN AMRO correspond to the characteristics of CSR. Stakeholder engagement is part of the characteristics trustworthiness and ethical behaviour. The measure of transparency is one of the most important characteristics of CSR. The outcome of this research is that some of the implemented efforts have been in CSR thinking. Although, there is not a universal, commonly accepted definition of the term Corporate Social Responsibility, the following definition is used in this thesis: ‘CSR refers to a concept that combines social and environmental issues or activities into a company’s daily operations and interactions with stakeholders’. The characteristics of CSR are environment, ethical behaviour, trustworthiness, transparency, cooperate governance, materiality and community. However, consumer confidence continues to decrease despite various actions taken by the banks. Measures have not been effective, because consumers are still not satisfied and the percentage of confidence is not increasing. Even though the measures correspond to the characteristics of CSR, it does not seem enough to regain consumer confidence. ING and ABN AMRO should follow and/or consult the example of banks such as Triodos Bank and ASN Bank in order to compare these banks to them. Also, the banks should promote their activities to restore consumer confidence in the financial sector on social media.