We should praise Abbey, not ridicule it

With the inglorious record of our banking sector, you would have thought the industry's top bosses would be eagerly looking for tips on how to improve their levels of service.

But so far, the new-style Abbey's attempts in this field have provoked only lofty disdain from competitors big and small.

Admittedly, it is still early days in Luqman Arnold's efforts to turn the Abbey basket case into something its 16 million customers want to use, rather than doing so simply from inertia.

But he is a driven man and has gathered an impressive set of senior executives around him. And by all accounts he is being given a fair wind to rethink the whole operation by his staff around the country.

Powerful investors such as Fidelity have been so impressed with Arnold's message that they have been piling into the company's shares.

Rivals, though, are happy either to ignore Arnold or snigger behind their hands.

There was a similar period of denial when HSBC set up First Direct - until it became a huge success and established itself as that rarest of all creatures, a bank whose customers are actually willing to recommend it to friends.

The reality, though, is that Arnold and his radical ideas about putting customers first pose a potentially toxic threat to his rivals.

Quite simply, banking today is so lavishly profitable that none of the big players wants the boat rocked. A couple of figures show exactly why.

Each year, the financial services sector makes between £10 billion and £13 billion of economic profit - a yardstick for direct comparison between sectors. In contrast, our ruthlessly competitive supermarkets, run by some of the most impressive business people, produce only £1 billion.

Arnold is busy trying to turn banking on its head. As they rack up ever more bloated profits at our expense, it is easy to see why most of his competitors will be hoping he fails.