Norges Bank takes reputation poll

The Norges Bank on Thursday released the results of its inaugural reputation survey, which showed that the central bank is seen as being efficient and independent, both by the general public and by industries that have closer contact with it.

The central bank did the survey to get an impression of how it is regarded in society, Siv Meisingseth, its director of communications, told CentralBanking.com. "We knew also that other central banks had done similar things- for example, the Riksbank," she said, pointing to the Swedish central bank's target group analysis, which gathers various demographics' views about it. The European Commission also surveys the level of trust in public institutions, including the European Central Bank.

The results of the survey - which comprised an online poll of about 40 questions, completed by 1001 members of the general public, and 41 hour-long face-to-face interviews with industry representatives - did not come as a surprise, Meisingseth said. "We expected most of it, but it's nice to have a firm confirmation." The central bank is seen as being "professionally sound and independent," and achieved a score of 55 on a reputation index compiled by TNS, a market research firm. Institutions with a score of between 50 and 75 are considered to have strong reputations.

Both the quantitative and qualitative parts of the survey posed questions on five areas:
• the respondent's view of the central bank's overall standing;
• whether the central bank was viewed favourably or unfavourably;
• whether respondents trusted the central bank;
• whether it got good results; and
• its quality, overall.

The online survey will be conducted once every two years, while the face-to-face interviews are slated to take place once every five years. This is because of the latter project's size and complexity, Meisingseth said, adding that the results gleaned from the interviews were not as susceptible to short-term change.

Improvements in the works
The poll also pointed to areas in which the central bank could improve, such as openness. The central bank plans to tackle this with a new online strategy that will see it using social networking sites such as Facebook, and putting content onto YouTube, a video-sharing website. "We've made a film about how interest rates work, which could go onto YouTube. In addition, clips from the webcasts of our Monetary Policy Committee press conferences could also be uploaded," Meisingseth said. The central bank also plans to unveil a financial education site, to help improve public literacy.

The Norges Bank already has some experience with social media tools through its foray into Twitter, a micro-blogging website, but the challenge was to create a dialogue with different audiences, Meisingseth noted. "We get a lot of questions on the telephone and through our website, and Facebook, for example, could be used to answer these questions," she said, adding that the point was not to give away more information, but to improve access to it.

The central bank will commence work on these measures at the end of the summer, Meisingseth said.