ANZ scores triple bottom line

ANZ has scored the trifecta: it is ranked lowest among the Big Four banks in the latest Roy Morgan Research retail customer satisfaction survey and in Roy Morgan's business customer survey, and in the DBM Business Financial Services Monitor, which were all released yesterday.

The Roy Morgan retail customer survey shows ANZ's score falling 5.5 percentage points since January - the biggest fall of the 24 financial institutions in the survey (along with Bank of Melbourne).

Its satisfaction rating of 73.1 per cent, at the end of July, puts it behind NAB, which has a rating of 78.5 per cent, Commonwealth Bank (77.6 per cent) and Westpac (73.8 per cent).

Roy Morgan's business customer survey shows ANZ's score falling 1.9 percentage points since January - the biggest fall among the big banks.

Its satisfaction rating of 62.6 per cent puts it behind Westpac, which has a rating of 67 per cent, NAB (63.2 per cent) and Commonwealth Bank (62.8 per cent).

In the DBM survey, ANZ is rated behind its peers in all segments (micro, small, medium and large business) and overall. Its overall rating is 6.8 (out of 10), compared with 7.2 for Westpac, 7.1 for Commonwealth and seven for NAB.

DBM's managing director, Dhruba Gupta, wrote in a commentary: "It is possible that ANZ has arrested its decline. While there may well have been a negative reaction to its decision to announce its lending rate independently of the Reserve Bank, businesses tend to grudgingly accept these decisions over time."

ANZ chief executive Mike Smith addressed the issue of customer satisfaction last Friday, during the presentation of the bank's June quarter update. It is a topic he has rarely discussed during his tenure at the bank.

Smith said: "We are looking to see our customer satisfaction figures return to where they were. We are working on some initiatives."