New index shows established brands recovering fastest from customer discontent, while debt charity StepChange records a near-perfect score at one of the hardest moments in people's financial lives, writes Andrew Palmer

The challengers were supposed to be winning this fight. This month, the old guard hit back.

For several years, the story of British financial services has been one of insurgency: sleek digital challengers picking off customers frustrated with slow, impersonal incumbents. August's Smart Money Risers index, published today by review site Smart Money People, tells a different story. Two of the biggest names in insurance and banking — Aviva and Chase Bank — posted the sharpest customer satisfaction gains of any provider in the sector, each climbing by close to two points in a single month.

Behind the numbers lies a simple explanation. Customers are not choosing between old and new, established and digital. They are choosing whoever makes their money simplest to manage and easiest to talk to when something goes wrong.

Recovery, not revolution

Aviva's rating rose to 4.14, up 1.81 on the month, driven by customers praising straightforward online renewals, competitive pricing and pension statements that, for once, made sense. One customer described service staff who "resolved my query very quickly and followed up to make sure I was happy" — the kind of ordinary competence that, in an industry known for its complexity, still counts as remarkable.

Chase Bank climbed even further, up 1.79 to 4.45, buoyed by an app customers called intuitive, strong savings rates, and proactive fraud protection that turned anxious moments into reassuring ones. "The range of perks and incentives is excellent," said one reviewer, "and customer service has been great and very proactive in protecting the customer."

Smart Money People's analysts read the pattern as evidence that reputational damage in financial services need not be permanent. Where value, communication and service delivery improve together, they say, trust can return faster than the industry's gloomier prophets tend to assume.

The debt charity with nowhere left to climb

If Aviva and Chase supplied the drama, StepChange supplied the quieter, more striking statistic: a rating of 4.90, and a perfect score of 5.00 for its debt advice service specifically. There is not much room above that.

The debt management charity's reviews came almost entirely from people at their lowest financial ebb, and the language was correspondingly raw. "Talking to StepChange was one of the best financial decisions I ever made," wrote one customer. "I didn't realise how many options were available to me, and they made an immediate impact on my quality of life."

It is a reminder that in personal finance, the moments that matter most are rarely the routine ones. Smart Money People's analysts point to a wider trend here: reviewers dealing with debt, fraud, bereavement or a difficult claim consistently rated their providers more highly — not less — when the response was fast, clear, and handled with something resembling humanity.

Simplicity, with a human being at the end of it

A third theme runs through August's results, and it cuts against the assumption that the future of finance is purely digital. Customers overwhelmingly rewarded easy apps and simple account management — but the strongest reviews came from those who also had access to a knowledgeable person when things got complicated. Revolut's personal account (up to 4.93 against its three-month average) and Saffron Building Society's savings product (up 0.08 to 4.86) both benefited from this combination: slick where it can be, human where it needs to be.

Peer Jelendorf, chief executive of Smart Money People, said the findings should reassure an industry braced for another difficult year. "With inflation still volatile and the cost of living continuing to bite, many people are managing real financial stress right now," he said. "August's Risers show that customers value financial brands that get the fundamentals right in that environment — clear communication, simple digital journeys and genuine support when things become overwhelming."

He added that the improvement at Aviva and Chase was "particularly encouraging", alongside what he called "the vital work StepChange does at some of the most difficult moments in people's financial lives".

August's Top Cross-Market Risers

Provider	Product	Aug Rating	Change
Aviva	Pension	3.09	+2.09 vs last month
Revolut	Personal account	4.93	+0.09 vs last 3 months
Saffron Building Society	Savings	4.86	+0.08 vs last month
StepChange	Debt advice	5.00	+0.05 vs last month

For an industry so often defined by what it gets wrong, August's index makes an unfashionable case: sometimes, the biggest names simply need to remember how to be useful.