From Banking Day:
Despite widespread complaints about “big banks” in general, Australian consumers have never been happier about their own Big Four members, says the latest Roy Morgan data. That’s as long as the Big Four member is not ANZ.
NAB, CBA and Westpac all recorded record customer satisfaction scores for October 2012, according to Roy Morgan data published yesterday. NAB now stands clearly above the 80 per cent satisfaction mark (at 80.4 per cent) and CBA is closing in on it (at 79.1 per cent). Both banks have made big gains since early 2011, when their scores were around 72 per cent.
After a mid-year dip, Westpac has consistently pushed its score up in recent months, and it now stands at 76.8 per cent.
But the ANZ has managed only a tepid recovery, to 75.1 per cent, after its score collapsed from a high of over 78 per cent registered through the first half of 2012. ANZ, which for several years dominated the customer satisfaction scores, is now the only bank whose score has dropped over the past 12 months.
Some analysts believe that ANZ’s collapse is related to its January decision to announce its lending rate independently of the Reserve Bank. ANZ’s CEO, Mike Smith, said in August that “we are looking to see our customer satisfaction figures return to where they were” and that the bank was working on initiatives which would boost its score.
Roy Morgan noted that the Big Four, with 78 per cent of customers satisfied, still trail mutual banks (91.4 per cent), building societies (90.1 per cent) and credit unions (89.4 per cent).
