Rate antics dent CBA's customer rating
Commonwealth Bank experienced a dent in the proportion of customers saying they are satisfied with the bank in the wake of its hefty hike in home loan interest rates last month, the regular monitor from Roy Morgan Research shows.Roy Morgan Research reported a decline of 0.9 percentage points in CBA's ranking, to 74.4 per cent in November 2009, trailing the usual leader, at least among the big banks, ANZ by 2.4 percentage points.CBA was the only one of the Big Four banks to show a decline in overall satisfaction over the last six months. Its ranking is now the same as Westpac's and a little better than that of National Australia Bank.Among CBA's home loan customers the satisfaction level fell to its lowest monthly level since July 2005. These scores tend to bounce back from bouts of adverse news. Westpac's ranking, for instance, has recovered most of the ground lost since it was the price leader in home loan rates this time last year.The biggest improver of the Big Four over the last 12 months was NAB, up 4.1 percentage points, which is, in part, due to better responses on questions over the bank having "fair fees and charges". NAB now leads its big bank peers on this measure.Bendigo Bank remains the sector leader of this research indicator, with 87.3 per cent of customers saying they are satisfied, a slightly better score than for credit unions, building societies and small foreign banks.