Banks attracting savings but not satisfaction
The recent "flight to quality" of depositors and borrowers to the bigger banks has not yet improved their customer satisfaction ratings, according to the latest Roy Morgan customer satisfaction survey. Rising margins on housing and consumer loans may be the reason for the deterioration in the Roy Morgan ratings. The five major banks' ratings were all down in the three months to July, with customers at St George the happiest overall with a rating of 77.0 per cent. The 2.3 percentage point fall for ANZ for the period was the highest among peers, although the 74.0 per cent rating still leads rivals Westpac, 72.0 per cent; Commonwealth, 67.6 per cent and National, 66.6 per cent. Bendigo Bank fell 1.6 percentage points for the quarter but still holds the highest listed bank rating at 85.7 per cent, with Adelaide Bank improving to 83.1 per cent. BankWest is slightly higher to 79.5 per cent, Bank of Queensland dropped to 79.4 per cent with Suncorp edging up to 78.3 per cent. Credit unions were not immune to the satisfaction slide, falling to 87.1 per cent, with a decline registered in each of the four time periods of month on month, quarter, calendar year and year to date. Building societies have turned around the declines of twelve months ago to record a small increase to 85.6 per cent in the quarter to July.