Businesses at the micro end of the scale had the most negative reaction to interest rate increases in November, registering a sharp drop in how they rated their banks.
The latest DBM Business Financial Services Monitor, released yesterday, shows that businesses in the small, medium and large categories took the rate increases in their stride, in contrast to the micro sector. (DBM defines these as businesses with turnover of less than a $1 million a year).
DBM's managing director, Dhruba Gupta, said: "When we drilled down into the micro business response, we found that many of them highlighted rising interest rates as a matter of concern.
"Larger businesses have alternatives to bank funding and are not affected as much by rate changes. They also get the benefit of higher returns on their business deposits.
"What we see from our surveys in November and December is that rising rates affected different levels of business differently."
Among the big four banks, Westpac was the highest-rated bank among micro businesses, small businesses (revenue of $1 to $5 million a year) and medium business (revenue of $5 to $50 million). Commonwealth was the top-rated bank among large businesses (revenue of $50 million and more).
Gupta said overall ANZ had maintained a steady rating, but the other three had lost ground with business customers over the past couple of months.