NOT MANY bank customers in Slovakia feel personally vulnerable because of the global financial crisis. This was the finding from a survey carried out by the market research firm Synovate.
About 9 percent of Slovak bank customers said they feel exposed to global financial risks, the fourth lowest figure after Poland, the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia.
The Russian Federation, in contrast, had the highest number of worried bank customers in the region, at 36 percent.
In Slovakia, only 16 percent of bank customers said they anticipated a worsening of their financial situation in the near future, according to the survey, as reported by the SITA newswire in mid May.
More than half of Slovaks surveyed attributed the current crisis to “greed” by western banking houses and financial institutions as well as to a lack of rules and appropriate government oversight of the banking sector in industrialised countries.
The survey also indicated that if Slovak bank customers need financial advice, 41 percent of those surveyed preferred to consult with family members, 10 percent turned to friends and 41 percent visited a bank or a financial advisor.
“When answering the question about how would they invest an unexpected windfall of €1 million, 34 percent of the Slovaks in the survey said that they would buy a family house or replace their existing one with a bigger one,” the survey reported. “To secure property for children was the second choice proffered by 12 percent of those surveyed, while 13 percent of Slovaks thought they would spend the money on purchasing a car, goods or a holiday and 9 percent would invest the winnings into time deposits or savings deposits.”
The Synovate market research firm conducted the survey between October and December 2009 on a sample of 1,000 bank customers in each of the following 13 countries: Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
