Singapore banks show weak brand-experience alignment in 2025

Citibank and DBS were the only banks to achieve high rankings.

Banks in Singapore showed the weakest alignment between their brand promises and customer experiences, according to Forrester’s 2025 Total Experience Score rankings for financial services firms.

Of the six banks assessed — Citibank, DBS, HSBC, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and United Overseas Bank — most struggled to match how they present their brands with what customers actually experience. 

Citibank and DBS were the only banks to achieve high rankings, performing well across both customer and noncustomer groups.

Forrester said most banks in Singapore need to improve how they engage customers, citing unwelcoming branch environments, complex account opening processes, and unclear communication.

The research firm added that competitive interest rates and simpler, more transparent interactions could strengthen customer trust and loyalty.

The Total Experience Score combines results from Forrester’s Brand Experience Index and Customer Experience Index to measure how well firms deliver on their brand promises across the entire customer lifecycle.

“Singapore’s financial services firms must rethink how they deliver value across the entire customer lifecycle, before and after the relationship starts,” said Tom Mouhsian, principal analyst at Forrester.