HKU POP releases ratings of the best banks and financial services companies and the trust and confidence indicatorsBack

Press Release on September 19, 2017

| Detailed Findings (Ratings of the Best Banks and Financial Services) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Trust in the HKSAR Government) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Trust in the Beijing Central Government) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Trust in the Taiwan Government) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Confidence in HK's Future) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Confidence in China's Future) |
| Detailed Findings (People's Confidence in "One Country, Two Systems") |

Special Announcements

1. Along with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of SAR, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong starts to regularly announce the “best corporations” in terms of “corporate social responsibility” ratings from July 2017, highlighting 18 business corporations from six major sectors. Such surveys began in 2008 and cover industries of public transportation, telecommunication, banks and financial services, real estate and property development, retail and fast food restaurants. It aims to gauge the public image of different commercial organizations in order to encourage them to become ethical companies. The rating figures released by POP today on the best banks and financial services companies are one of the “Best Corporations” survey series.

2. From July 2017, apart from sampling landline numbers to conduct opinion surveys, mobile numbers are also added to the sampling frame. Since it takes time to conduct further testing, the figures released today by POP are only based on the landline sample. The results of the mixed sample will be released after further testing is completed. Meanwhile, POP has recently used “effective response rate” to report the survey’s contact information, in order to increase the compatibility of both survey modes. As for the weighting method, the latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution and the economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census.

3. To facilitate academic study and rational discussion, POP has already released for public examination some time ago via the “HKU POP SITE” (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the raw data of regular rating surveys of current CE Carrie Lam, former CEs CH Tung, Donald Tsang and CY Leung, along with related demographics of respondents. Please follow normal academic standards when using or citing such data.

Abstract

POP conducted a two-stage survey in September on the “Best Banks and Financial Services Companies”, and the results show that the most well-known bank was HSBC. Results of rating survey, however, show that Hang Seng Bank has the best CSR reputation in the sector, scoring 62.1 marks, while HSBC and Bank of China followed with 60.5 and 55.0 marks. POP interviewed 508 and 502 Hong Kong people by means of random telephone surveys for the first stage naming survey and second stage rating survey respectively. The sampling errors of rating figures are no greater than +/-2.0 marks at 95% confidence level. The response rate of the rating survey is 56%.

As for the trust and confidence indicators, POP interviewed 807 Hong Kong people between 1 and 6 September 2017 by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. Our latest survey shows that Hong Kong people’s trust in the local government has significantly improved compared to three months ago. The net trust now stands at positive 17, increased significantly by 18 percentage points. On the contrary, people’s trust in the Central Government has dropped by 9 percentage points to negative 12. Meanwhile, people’s trust in the Taiwan Government has not changed much. The net trust now stands at negative 24 percentage points. As for the confidence indicators, people’s confidence in the future of China remains the highest among the three, although the latest net confidence has dropped by 8 percentage points to positive 32. The net confidence in the future of Hong Kong has increased by 8 percentage points to positive 17. Meanwhile, people’s net confidence in “one country, two systems” now stands at positive 1 percentage point, slightly dropped compared to three months ago. Further analysis shows that the younger the respondent, the less one trusts the Central Government and the less confident in Hong Kong’s future and “one country, two systems”. The maximum sampling error of all percentages is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while that of net values needs another calculation. The response rate of the survey is 50%.

Points to note:

[1] The address of the “HKU POP SITE” is http://hkupop.pori.hk, journalists can check out the details of the survey there.

[2] Because of sampling errors in conducting the survey(s) and the rounding procedures in processing the data, the figures cannot be too precise, and the totals may not be completely accurate. Therefore, when quoting percentages of the survey(s), journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places, but when quoting the rating figures, one decimal place can be used.

[3] The data of this survey is collected by means of random telephone interviews conducted by real interviewers, not by any interactive voice system (IVS). If a research organization uses “computerized random telephone survey” to camouflage its IVS operation, it should be considered unprofessional.

Ratings of the Best Banks and Financial Services Companies

[4] The sample size of the rating survey is 502 successful interviews, not 502 x 56.3% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.

[5] The maximum sampling errors of various ratings are not more than +/-2.0. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. When quoting these figures, journalists can state “sampling errors of various ratings not more than +/-2.0 at 95% confidence level”.

Trust and Confidence Indicators

[6] The sample size of the survey is 807 successful interviews, not 807 x 49.8% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.

[7] The maximum sampling error of all percentages is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. When quoting these figures, journalists can state “sampling error of percentages not more than +/-4% at 95% confidence level, sampling error of net values not more than +/-8%”.

I. Ratings of the Best Banks and Financial Services Companies

In 2008, HKUPOP initiated a tracking survey series on Corporate Social Responsibility, aiming to gauge the public image of different commercial organizations in order to encourage them to become ethical companies and select the best corporations. There are a total of six modules under this survey series, namely, 1) Public Transportation, 2) Telecommunication, 3) Banks and Financial Services, 4) Real Estate and Property Development, 5) Retail, and 6) Fast Food Restaurant. From January to December 2015, the survey was sponsored by Metro Broadcast Corporation Ltd and branded as “Metro CSR Index”. Results were released every month in the website of Metro Radio.

At the beginning, these surveys were conducted once every three months, with two different modules each time. From July 2017, the frequency was changed to once every six months, with one module only for each survey. The surveys were conducted in two stages. In the first stage, respondents were requested to nominate, unprompted, at most 5 corporations that they can think of. POP would then select from this list of unprompted nominees the 3 most frequently cited names for the next stage survey. During the second stage survey, respondents would be asked to rate the CSR performance for each of the shortlisted corporations using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates extremely poor performance, 100 indicates extremely good performance, and 50 means half-half.

Latest Figures

From July 2017, POP enhanced the previous weighting method that has been used for quite a few years. Apart from age, gender and education, economic activity status is now also taken into account when adjusting data. The latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution and the economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census. Herewith the contact information for the latest surveys of the best banks and financial services companies under the Best Corporations series excluding the 203 and 119 testing samples using mobile numbers:

Date of survey	Effective sample size	Effective response rate	Maximum sampling error^[8]
1-5/9/2017 (Naming survey)	508	46.7%	+/-4%
12-13/9/2017 (Rating survey)	502	56.3%	+/-2.0

[8] Errors are calculated at 95% confidence level using full sample size. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.

The research design of our “Best Corporation” rating survey has been explained in detail under “Survey Method” in our corresponding web page. The corporations being rated in our latest survey were those which obtained highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted in September 2017. In the survey, respondents could name up to 5 local banks and financial services companies which they knew best. The top three corporations mentioned most frequently in the sector were: HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and Bank of China. These corporations then entered into the second stage rating survey conducted in the same month, respondents were asked to rate each short-listed corporations using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates extremely poor performance, 100 indicates extremely good performance, and 50 means half-half.

Recent ratings of the best banks and financial services companies are summarized as follows:

Date of survey	21-22/11/16	20-21/2/17	16-18/5/17	*12-13/9/17*		*Latest change*
Sample size	512	503	521	*502*		--
Response rate*	69.0%	71.7%	69.9%	*56.3* %		--
Latest finding	Finding	Finding	Finding	*Finding & error* *^[9]*	*Recognition rate*	--
Hang Seng Bank	65.8{1}^[10]	61.1{1}^[10]	67.5{1}^[10]	*62.1+/-1.6{1}*	*90.4%*	*-5.4^[10]*
HSBC	61.2{2}^[10]	58.7{2}^[10]	63.0{2}^[10]	*60.5+/-1.7{2}*	*90.8%*	*-2.5^[10]*
Bank of China	60.1{3}^[10]	56.2{3}^[10]	61.2{3}^[10]	*55.0+/-2.0{3}*	*89.0%*	*-6.2^[10]*

* “Overall response rate” was used before September 2017, thereafter, “effective response rate” was used.

[9] All error figures in the table are calculated at 95% confidence level. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Media can state “sampling error of various ratings not more than +/-2.0 at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. Numbers in square brackets { } indicates rankings. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.

[10] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level under the same weighting method, meaning that they are statistically significant prima facie. However, whether numerical differences are statistically significant or not is not the same as whether they are practically useful or meaningful.

Our latest survey showed that Hang Seng Bank was considered as having the best CSR reputation among local banks and financial services companies, scored 62.1 marks, while HSBC and Bank of China scored 60.5 and 55.0 marks respectively.

Online Opinion Analysis

In July 2017, POP started collaborating with uMax Data Technology Limited to conduct “Online Opinion Analysis”. uMax Data would provide technical support concerning social big data to track posts in Facebook pages and various major forums in Hong Kong that mentioned specific political figures or organizations. When public opinion changes very significantly, POP will summarize the popular online posts about the specific political figures or organizations between the two surveys and compile a list of related events. Readers could make their own judgment if the events listed have impact on the related public opinion figures.

Since the latest survey findings reveal that the rating of Hang Seng Bank has changed significantly compared to the figure recorded in the last survey, POP conducted “Online Opinion Analysis” to identify the top ten most discussed issues on the Internet. The list of most discussed items after eliminating duplications is as follows:

Hang Seng Bank increases the number of annual leaves of its employees.

Rewards of using Hang Seng Bank credit cards.

Hang Seng Bank increases the interest rate for mortgage.

Fingerprint authentication becomes available on Hang Seng Bank mobile app.

The results show that online public opinion had been discussing the number of annual leaves of Hang Seng Bank employees and credit card rewards. Whether or not these items could sufficiently explain the changes in Hang Seng Bank’s rating, readers could form their own judgment.

II. Trust and Confidence Indicators

Latest Figures

POP today releases via the POP Site the latest findings on people’s trust in the HKSAR, Beijing Central and Taiwan Governments, and their confidence in Hong Kong’s future, China’s future and “one country, two systems”. In July 2017, as Hong Kong marks its 20th anniversary of the handover, POP adjusted the design of this survey series, to change from once every three months to once every four months. Besides, POP enhanced the previous weighting method that has been used for quite a few years. Apart from age, gender and education, economic activity status is now also taken into account when adjusting data. The latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution and the economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey excluding the 203 testing samples using mobile numbers:

Date of survey	Effective sample size	Effective response rate	Maximum sampling error of percentages^[11]
1-6/9/2017	807	49.8%	+/-4%

[11] Errors are calculated at 95% confidence level using full sample size. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.

Recent popularity figures of SAR, Beijing Central and Taiwan Governments and people’s confidence in the future as well as “one country, two systems” are summarized below:

Date of survey	19-25/8/16	12-15/12/16	21-24/3/17	13-15/6/17	*1-6/9/17*	*Latest Change*
Total sample size^[12]	1,003	1,001	1,073	1,004	*807*	--
Response rate*	71.4%	71.6%	72.4%	69.8%	*49.8%*	--
Finding	Finding	Finding	Finding	Finding	*Finding & error^[13]*	--
Trust in HKSAR Government^[14]	40%	40%	48%^[15]	37%^[15]	*49+/-4%*	*+12%^[15]*
Distrust in HKSAR Government^[14]	40%	36%	32%	38%^[15]	*32+/-3%*	*-6%^[15]*
Net trust	1%	4%	16%^[15]	-1%^[15]	*17+/-6%*	*+18%^[15]*
Mean value^[14]	2.9 (Base=577)	3.0 (Base=621)	3.2^[15] (Base=616)	2.9^[15] (Base=595)	*3.2+/-0.1* *(Base=801)*	*+0.3^[15]*
Trust in Beijing Government^[14]	30%	39%^[15]	40%	37%	*34+/-4%*	*-3%*
Distrust in Beijing Government^[14]	47%	37%^[15]	38%	40%	*46+/-4%*	*+6%^[15]*
Net trust	-17%	2%^[15]	3%	-3%	*-12+/-7%*	*-9%^[15]*
Mean value^[14]	2.6 (Base=540)	2.9^[15] (Base=601)	3.0 (Base=630)	2.9 (Base=552)	*2.7+/-0.1* *(Base=555)*	*-0.2*
Trust in Taiwan Government^[14]	17%	15%	22%^[15]	19%	*18+/-3%*	*-1%*
Distrust in Taiwan Government^[14]	32%	41%^[15]	43%	46%	*42+/-4%*	*-4%*
Net trust	-15%	-26%^[15]	-21%	-27%	*-24+/-6%*	*+3%*
Mean value^[14]	2.7 (Base=377)	2.5^[15] (Base=499)	2.6 (Base=564)	2.5 (Base=488)	*2.6+/-0.1* *(Base=451)*	*+0.1*
Confidence in HK’s future	48%^[15]	51%	52%	49%	*56+/-4%*	*+7%^[15]*
No-confidence in HK’s future	43%^[15]	39%	43%	40%	*39+/-4%*	*-1%*
Net confidence	5%^[15]	12%	10%	9%	*17+/-8%*	*+8%^[15]*
Confidence in China’s future	58%	64%^[15]	64%	66%	*62+/-4%*	*-4%^[15]*
No-confidence in China’s future	31%^[15]	29%	30%	26%	*29+/-4%*	*+3%*
Net confidence	28%^[15]	36%^[15]	34%	40%	*32+/-7%*	*-8%^[15]*
Confidence in “one country, two systems”	48%	47%	52%^[15]	49%	*48+/-4%*	*-1%*
No-confidence in “one country, two systems”	43%^[15]	45%	43%	43%	*47+/-4%*	*+4%*
Net confidence	5%^[15]	2%	9%	6%	*1+/-8%*	*-5%*

* “Overall response rate” was used before September 2017, thereafter, “effective response rate” was used.

[12] Some questions only use sub-samples of the tracking surveys concerned. The sub-sample sizes of the surveys range from 576 to 639, and the increased sampling errors have already been reflected in the figures tabulated.

[13] All error figures in the table are calculated at 95% confidence level. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Media can state “sampling error of percentages not more than +/-4% and of net values not more than +/-8% at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.

[14] Collapsed from a 5-point scale. The mean value is calculated by quantifying all individual responses into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 marks according to their degree of positive level, where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, and then calculate the sample mean.

[15] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level under the same weighting method, meaning that they are statistically significant prima facie. However, whether numerical differences are statistically significant or not is not the same as whether they are practically useful or meaningful.

Latest survey revealed that 49% of the respondents trusted the HKSAR Government, 34% trusted the Beijing Central Government, and 18% trusted the Taiwan Government. The net trust values are positive 17, negative 12 and negative 24 percentage points, while the mean scores of these trust indicators are 3.2, 2.7 and 2.6 respectively, meaning close to “half-half” in general. On the other hand, 56% of the respondents had confidence in Hong Kong’s future, 62% had confidence in China’s future, while 48% of the respondents were confident in “one country, two systems”. The three net confidence values are positive 17, 32 and 1 percentage points respectively.

Indepth Analysis

In the survey, we also asked respondents for their age. If they were reluctant to give their exact age, they could give us a range. According to their answers, we grouped them into 18-29, 30-49, and 50 years or above. Herewith further analysis of respondents’ trust in Beijing Central Government, confidence in Hong Kong’s future and “one country, two systems” by age:

Date of survey: 1-6/9/2017		18-29	30-49	50 or above	Overall Sample
Percentage of trust / distrust in Beijing Central Government^[16]	Trust	13+/-7% (14)	25+/-6% (54)	48+/-6% (126)	34+/-4% (194)
	Half-half	16+/-7% (16)	17+/-5% (36)	13+/-4% (33)	15+/-3% (85)
	Distrust	71+/-9% (71)	55+/-7% (116)	31+/-6% (82)	47+/-4% (270)
	Don’t know / hard to say	0+/-0% (0)	3+/-2% (7)	8+/-3% (20)	5+/-2% (27)
	Total	100% (101)	100% (213)	100% (262)	100% (575)
	Mean value	2.1+/-0.2 (Base=101)	2.5+/-0.2 (Base=206)	3.2+/-0.2 (Base=242)	2.7+/-0.1 (Base=549)

[16] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 99% confidence level.

Date of survey: 1-6/9/2017		18-29	30-49	50 or above	Overall Sample
Percentage of confidence / no-confidence in Hong Kong’s future^[17]	Confidence	33+/-10% (30)	49+/-7% (110)	69+/-5% (198)	56+/-4% (338)
	No-confidence	65+/-10% (60)	46+/-7% (103)	26+/-5% (75)	39+/-4% (238)
	Don’t know / hard to say	3+/-3% (3)	4+/-3% (9)	6+/-3% (16)	5+/-2% (28)
	Total	100% (93)	100% (221)	100% (290)	100% (604)

[17] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 99% confidence level.

Date of survey: 1-6/9/2017		18-29	30-49	50 or above	Overall Sample
Percentage of confidence / no-confidence in “one country, two systems”^[18]	Confidence	27+/-8% (29)	39+/-7% (80)	60+/-6% (183)	47+/-4% (292)
	No-confidence	73+/-8% (80)	55+/-7% (112)	32+/-5% (99)	47+/-4% (291)
	Don’t know / hard to say	0+/-0% (0)	6+/-3% (12)	8+/-3% (23)	6+/-2% (35)
	Total	100% (109)	100% (204)	100% (306)	100% (618)

[18] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 99% confidence level.

Opinion Daily

In January 2007, POP opened a feature page called “Opinion Daily” at the “POP Site”, to record significant events and selected polling figures on a day-to-day basis, in order to let readers judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP each day starting from July 24, a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to “Opinion Daily” as soon as they are verified by POP.

For the polling items covered in this press release, some items within the previous survey were conducted from June 13 to 15, 2017 while this survey was conducted from September 1 to 6, 2017. In between these two surveys, herewith the significant events selected from counting newspaper headlines and commentaries on a daily basis and covered by at least 25% of the local newspaper articles. Readers can make their own judgment if these significant events have any impacts to different polling figures.

6/9/17	Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor unveils the scheme for local first-time homebuyers.
25/8/17	The Court of Final Appeal rejects the application for appeal by Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching.
25/8/17	The People’s Liberation Army helps clean up in Macau after typhoon.
20/8/17	Various groups organize protest against jailing of activists.
17/8/17	Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow have been sentenced to six to eight months in prison.
14/8/17	Democrat Howard Lam is accused of misleading police officer.
11/8/17	Democrat Howard Lam claims he was kidnapped by mainland agents.
30/7/17	China holds military parade to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army.
25/7/17	The government announces the co-location arrangement for the Express Rail Link.
19/7/17	The Legislative Council Finance Committee approves the funding request of $3.6 billion for new educational resources.
14/7/17	The High Court disqualifies four lawmakers from the Legislative Council.
8/7/17	China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning arrives Hong Kong.
3/7/17	The first working day of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as Chief Executive.
1/7/17	Xi Jinping attends the Inaugural Ceremony of the Fifth Term HKSAR Government.
23/6/17	The Executive Council passes the proposal of abolishing the MPF offsetting mechanism.
21/6/17	The State Council, on the nomination of Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, appoints principal officials of the fifth-term Government of the HKSAR.

Commentary

Note: The following commentary was written by Research Manager of POP, Frank Lee.

Our “Best Corporations” survey conducted in September shows that the most well-known bank was HSBC. Results of rating survey, however, show that Hang Seng Bank has the best CSR reputation in the sector, scoring 62.1 marks, while HSBC and Bank of China followed with 60.5 and 55.0 marks.

As for the trust and confidence indicators, our survey shows that Hong Kong people’s trust in the local government has significantly improved compared to three months ago. The net trust now stands at positive 17, increased significantly by 18 percentage points. On the contrary, people’s trust in the Central Government has dropped by 9 percentage points to negative 12. Meanwhile, people’s trust in the Taiwan Government has not changed much. The net trust now stands at negative 24 percentage points.

As for the confidence indicators, people’s confidence in the future of China remains the highest among the three, although the latest net confidence has dropped by 8 percentage points to positive 32. The net confidence in the future of Hong Kong has increased by 8 percentage points to positive 17. Meanwhile, people’s net confidence in “one country, two systems” now stands at positive 1 percentage point, slightly dropped compared to three months ago. Further analysis shows that the younger the respondent, the less one trusts the Central Government and the less confident in Hong Kong’s future and “one country, two systems”. As for the reasons affecting the ups and downs of various figures, readers are welcome to make their own judgment using the detailed records displayed in our “Opinion Daily”.

Future Release (Tentative)

September 26, 2017 (Tuesday) 12pm to 2pm: Popularity of CE and HKSAR Government

Reference – Technical Notes of “Online Opinion Analysis”

Technically, POP research team firstly determines and inputs related keywords to be searched on the platform provided by uMax Data. POP then selects targeted online platforms to be monitored (currently selected: Facebook and forums), and extract the top five most discussed items on each online platform, thus come up with a list of 10 items in total. By eliminating duplications in the top ten items, POP compiles a table which is included in the press release for readers’ reference.