Reputation in financial services.
Insert your favourite joke about our least popular professions – traffic warden, estate agent, lawyer, banker – here.
Except it isn’t a joke, is it?
Financial services companies continue to be reviled by the public and the media. You might be unsympathetic… but like it or not, the financial services sector is a core part of the UK’s economic system. Their reputation matters to us all – and even if you don’t work within the financial sector, their experience in dealing with these issues may hold useful information that you can use in your own sector.
Communicate Magazine are hosting the 3rd annual conference for corporate communicators in the financial sector this week (Wednesday 29 June), to discuss strategies for rebuilding trust. As always, there will be a range of speakers with different perspectives on the topics under discussion: there are over 25 of them (find out more about the programme).
Sessions include discussion of corporate sponsorship, sustainability reports, managing activist risk, crisis management and brand valuation. The keynote speaker will be Stephen Hammond MP, chair of the Parliamentary Group on Wholesale Financial Markets and Services.
And at least one of the sessions will involve audience participation. Do you, like me, dread being called out from the audience for obligatory fun (read: deep embarrassment)? Having acted as scribe for our group at the Social Media in a Corporate Context conference, writing up our thoughts for the Build an App in a Day task, I can tell you that that genuinely was entertaining, and not too strenuous. I’ve no idea what they have in store tomorrow, though!
Interested? Get in touch with Communicate as soon as possible…
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
Lucy
The timing of this conference was particularly germane, in the week that the Financial Conduct Authority – the regulatory body replacing the FSA – has promised to be bolder and tougher with industry misconduct.
However, based on the lack of trust the public currently has in financial services companies, especially the banks, it will take more than tighter regulation to turn the tide in the sector.
Here are my thoughts on the reputation conundrum in financial services:
http://www.pr-media-blog.co.uk/financial-services-reputation/
Hi Jon – I like the way your post differentiates between brand and reputation. It’s an important point.
And I wish I’d been able to get to the conference: from the tweetstream, it sounds as though there were some excellent sessions. Were you there?