HSBC discovers consumers trust robots for surgery over savings

(May 24): Andy Maguire faces a challenge: tasked with upgrading HSBC’s digital-banking systems, he has discovered that customers are twice as likely to trust a robot for heart surgery than for picking a savings account.

“I do find it slightly odd,” said the chief operating officer of Europe’s largest bank, referring to its survey of more than 12,000 consumers in 11 countries published Wednesday. Just 7% of respondents would trust a robot with their savings, versus the 14% willing to submit to a machine for heart surgery.

“You think, gosh, one would’ve imagined the world had moved on further or was moving faster than that,” Maguire said in an interview. While consumers tend naturally to trust medical professionals, the “bar is pretty high” for banks dealing with people’s money, he said.

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