Three of the Big Four banks have managed to deepen their retail customer relationships over the past few years, while the fourth, Westpac, has fallen behind. These findings are based on responses to Roy Morgan Research surveys asking bank customers to nominate their main financial institution.
MFI is only one way of measuring trends in customer relationships. Financial institutions also look at products per customer and share of wallet. While it may be only a partial view, on MFI rankings, Commonwealth Bank leads the field by a long way.
More than 80 per cent of CBA's customers say the bank is their MFI. The proportion of CBA customers who consider the bank their MFI has increased by 2.9 per cent over the past five years.
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The proportion of National Australia Bank customers who consider the bank their MFI has increased by 2.4 per cent, to 69.4 per cent, over the same period. ANZ's MFI ratio has increased by 1.5 per cent, to 67.4 per cent, over the five years.
Westpac's MFI ratio has fallen two per cent, to 69.4 per cent, over the past five years.
Roy Morgan's industry communications director, Norman Morris, said there were no set criteria for determining an MFI relationship. It could be a high-value product, such as a home loan or a superannuation account; it could be a product that involves a high level of interaction, such as a transaction account or credit card; or it could be the customer's feeling about which institution they preferred dealing with.
Among other banks in the Roy Morgan survey, Bank of Queensland has increased its MFI ratio by 7.8 per cent over the past five years, BankSA by six per cent, St George Bank by 3.5 per cent, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank by 2.8 per cent.
UBank customers have been surveyed over the past four years, and the proportion of these who consider the NAB subsidiary their MFI has increased from 1.6 per cent to 5.6 per cent.
Banks whose MFI ratios have fallen include Citibank (down 20 per cent over five years), ME Bank (down 6.5 per cent), Suncorp (down one per cent) and Bankwest (down 0.9 per cent).
Macquarie Bank's MFI ratio fell 36 per cent over the five years, but this time period includes part of the period when the bank exited the mortgage market.