Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Three years after National Australia Bank launched its marketing differentiator under the rubric of a "break up" with the big banks, how is the strategy going? Superficially, very well, although a closer look suggests NAB is attracting mainly lower-yielding customers.

Roy Morgan Research released analysis last week on the increase in "traditional banking customers" over the four years to December 2013.

NAB added 701,000 customers over the four years.

 Over the same period, Commonwealth Bank attracted 406,000 new customers, ANZ 339,000 and Westpac 235,000.

NAB also fared best of the Big Four banks in attracting new customers from the well-heeled, and presumably more profitable, top quintile. The bank added 198,000 new customers in this segment.

However, more than 500,000 of NAB's new customers were in lower quintiles, probably attracted by NAB's lower-fee transaction account products.

A more focussed attack on higher yielding customers appears to be a plausible option for a bank.

By contrast, ANZ added a mere 6000 new customers in the two bottom quintiles over the four years. Three quarters of its new customers were in the top two quintiles. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}