the curious case of Kutxabank — part 1

How curious is this? Someone might want to look into it in more detail…

I could bore you with all the story behind it but let’s try to keep it simple. Maybe let’s just say that I attempted switching from bank A to bank B because I dislike the customer service at bank A, but when I went to bank B it was so bad I considered staying at A. Walking back home I saw branches of banks C, D, E and F and I wondered if they were better; and when I say I wondered I say I looked at data; and when I say I looked at data I say I checked ratings on Google Maps. The ratings for those specific branches I walked by were all between 1.9 and 2.6: as expected they're all about the same - it's the “detractors” who write mostly in these cases. It’s then that I saw bank G: 4.9. Wait… what!?

It was enough motivation to bring in some more data for a few more branches (here in Madrid) and all the major banks in Spain: I gathered roughly 20 branches per bank and I added up all the ratings.

It turns out that 4.9 for bank G was not an exception. Bank G as a whole is an outlier as it lies waaay out. It completely outclasses everybody and apparently knows or does something that others do not. How can it average 4.8 stars (~2 stars more than the 2nd best, Cajamar) and 130+ reviews (~4 times more than the 2nd highest, BBVA)?

It looks "odd" to say the least, doesn't it? And btw, I think you can now guess which was bank A and surely, surely bank B!