We timed how long banks in seven markets take to answer a simple public question.
We posted the same straightforward question to the public channels of banks across seven markets and measured the time to a reply that actually answered it. Acknowledgements did not count. The median came back at nineteen hours.
The spread mattered more than the median. Digital-only banks clustered under three hours; large branch networks ranged from four hours to over two days, often depending on which channel the question landed in rather than what it asked.
That inconsistency is the real finding. Customers do not experience a median — they experience the one reply they waited for. Coverage across channels is worth more than shaving an hour off the fastest one.
median time to a useful public reply across the banks we timed.
Monthly notes on global banking, trust and what customers do next.