Business customer satisfaction slides

Business customers' satisfaction with their banks has continued the slide that started at the beginning of the year.

The latest Roy Morgan Research business banking satisfaction survey shows all but a couple of banks suffering a fall in their ratings since the start of the year and a continuation of this decline into May.

Roy Morgan director Norman Morris said the issue causing the deterioration was loan terms. Business would like more of the Reserve Bank's cash rate cuts to be passed on.

Morris said banks were also getting lower ratings in response to questions about how the bank "follow developments in the business", and whether the bank "maintains regular contact". As banks cut costs, in the face of flat loan demand, service levels are falling.

Westpac has the top rating among the Big Four, with a satisfaction score of 66.8 per cent, followed by NAB, with 64.7 per cent, Commonwealth Bank (61.6 per cent) and ANZ (61.5 per cent).

Westpac has been the top-performing bank in the Roy Morgan business customer survey since August last year.

ANZ has dropped from first to fourth position over the past 12 months, while NAB has climbed from fourth to second over the same period.

Among the other banks in the survey, Bendigo Bank has the highest rating, with a satisfaction score of 82.9 per cent, followed by Macquarie Bank, with a rating of 69.5 per cent, and Bank of Queensland (67.6 per cent).