A new study indicates that Britons are more likely to stick with their current account provider for longer than they are with their personal partner. In fact, on a nationwide scale Britons tend to spend an average of roughly 16.5 years with the provider of their current account, compared to a mere 14.1 being spent with their partner according to recent Santander research reports.

In terms of bank loyalty these figures do vary somewhat from region to region, with the South East of the UK coming in with average figures averaging 17.7 years of loyalty to their current account provider per customer. The North West, on the other hand, provides the opposite story of a smaller (but still impressive) 15.3 year average per consumer.

Many people feel that this trend is a result of a long-standing idea amongst consumers that, despite what most logic would argue, it is easier for an individual to file for divorce than to change their current account holder. This is even true in today’s market where many different financial institutions tend to offer highly competitive deals, especially in terms of the property market that is driving many consumers’ decisions due to the continued low mortgage rates offered by many groups for a variety of consumers ranging from first-time buyers to even re-mortgagers and general investors.

For many banks this news comes as somewhat mixed, being happy to retain legacy consumers for long-term profits of their own while at the same time being posed with a new challenge of attempting to convert consumers from other banking establishments to join them. Whether or not they can be particularly successful with the conversion is still up for debate given the highly volatile nature of the market at the current stages, but many people anticipate many banks revising their conversion strategies to become even more competitive in the future in the hopes of encouraging the switch and establish a larger customer base.