Inaugural Financial Services in North Carolina Survey

The North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks released a survey of North Carolina consumer yesterday. Read the news reports here and here. Honestly, financial stuff bores me and I don’t feel like reading the 121 page PDF results file. Read the executive summary for more detail. Here are some excerpts from their press release:

North Carolina consumers are generally satisfied with financial services in the state but indicated concerns about fairness of mortgage lending, according to the inaugural Financial Services in North Carolina Survey. The survey, conducted on behalf of the N.C. Office of the Commissioner of Banks, is the first poll ever of North Carolinians’ perceptions of the fairness of the state’s financial services industry and the NCCOB’s role as regulator. …

Some of the key findings of the study include:

• Residents were more concerned about the fairness of mortgage lending than any other type of financial services product.
• The top fairness concerns for financial services customers are:

1. fairness of checking and savings account rates and fees;
2. misrepresentation of mortgage information; and
3. fairness of fees charged for alternative financial services.
   

The survey also noted that 500,000 adult residents (8 percent of the state’s total adult population) do not have an account at a depository institution. …

The survey was conducted by an independent third party, MarketSearch Corporation of Columbia, S.C., that polled 500 citizens from rural and urban counties across the state to
represent a sampling of the state’s population. NCCOB plans to conduct this survey annually to monitor public perception of financial services companies and NCCOB’s effectiveness in regulating them. NCCOB was established by the General Assembly in 1931. NCCOB currently regulates 99 state-chartered banks, thrifts, savings and loans, trust companies, and more than 1,600 mortgage lenders/brokers and 18,000 loan officers, as well as numerous consumer finance companies, check-cashers, and other financial services.

Update: It's too hot to think about stuff right now. According to weather.com it is 105 degrees where I am.