Banks Are Tone-Deaf to Media Relations

Morning in the Banking World

If you wake up tomorrow and turn on your radio, you won’t hear a banker explaining inflation in simple terms. You won’t hear someone clearly explaining interest rates or balance sheets. Instead, you will hear another analyst discussing football or gossip, while banks remain in their tall glass towers, expecting the world to love them automatically.

When a crisis occurs, the CEO is suddenly dragged in front of cameras, blinking nervously in the spotlight like a student caught cheating. Instead of calming the situation, they create more panic with technical language that nobody understands.

This is the media relations strategy of most banks. If it sounds absurd, it’s because it is.

Bad Timing, Worse Messaging

Banks have a unique ability to make announcements at the worst possible times. Imagine revealing news of restructuring right after a FinTech company collapses. It’s like announcing a wedding during a funeral. The stage is wrong, the mood is wrong, and the timing is certainly wrong.

When they do issue statements, the language resembles a crime scene, technical, cold, and filled with corporate jargon. Instead of offering reassurance, the message shouts: “Something’s wrong!”

The Panic Button CEOs

Then comes the panic button: push the CEO into the spotlight. No preparation, no briefings, just a shaky voice and a forced smile. The audience hears worry instead of confidence. In that moment, the perception shifts, and the bank appears less like a secure fortress and more like a sinking ship.

Ignoring Media = Pouring Fuel on Fire

Banks have mastered one dangerous game: ignoring the media. They seem to believe that silence will protect them. But silence in a crisis is like pouring gasoline on a fire. Reporters will write the story anyway, but without your viewpoint. The version they create might damage you severely.

Interactive briefings, context-driven explanations, and even informal chats with journalists are not luxuries. They are survival tactics. Yet many banks act as if engaging with the media is beneath them.

Who Are You Talking To?

When banks finally do speak, they talk to only one group: other financial professionals. Their language is technical, dry, and full of jargon meant for underwriters and regulators. Meanwhile, customers, the ones panicking at ATMs, hear nothing. The media, the ones who could clarify, receive nothing.

A story meant for one audience is not a story at all. It’s a whisper in a storm.

The 23-Hour Silence

Here’s a classic move: after announcing shocking news, the bank goes quiet for nearly 24 hours. By then, Twitter, TikTok, and the rumor mill have buried them. Narratives don’t wait. If you don’t provide one, someone else will, and it often becomes the “truth.”

Banks fail at this because they believe facts alone are enough. But facts without context can be dangerous. People don’t consume raw data; they consume stories.

Storytelling or Story-Failing

At the core of the issue, banks have forgotten one crucial thing: storytelling. They present spreadsheets instead of narratives. They throw out numbers instead of meaning. Communication isn’t about dumping data; it’s about shaping reality.

Without a story, people will create one for you. Once that story spreads, it’s challenging to change it. False narratives grow faster than any official press release.

The Way Out

The truth is simple: media relations are not just for show. It isn’t a hobby for the PR department. It is essential for banks, especially when the environment gets tense. Without effective media relations, institutions can collapse under the weight of rumors, poor timing, and silence.

Banks don’t fail because numbers betrayed them. They fail because their stories did.