Westpac doing well among higher income customers

Roy Morgan Research yesterday highlighted that the overall bank satisfaction rankings - which continue to put ANZ first out of the big banks - don't hold for all customer segments.

Individuals earning more than $90,000 year are less satisfied with their bank across all the four majors, despite the presumed profit potential from this group.

High-income earners account for about nine per cent of all bank customers but have a higher number of products per customer, such as credit cards, investment loans, superannuation, home loans and life insurance.

This segment averages 11.4 financial products per customer, compared to the overall population average of 7.3.

This higher income group thus accounts for just over one quarter of financial services footings, which gives it the best cross sell potential.

The leader in customer satisfaction for the big four amongst this high income group, according to Roy Morgan, is Westpac, at 69.1 per cent, followed by the ANZ (67.2 per cent), Commonwealth Bank (64.5 per cent) and then National Australia Bank (61.6 per cent).

Roy Morgan said the biggest improver amongst the majors for this segment over the last 12 months was Westpac with a rise of six percentage points. ANZ was the only major bank to show a decline (of 2.7 percentage points).

Amongst bank customers overall, bank satisfaction for the last 12 months improved by 0.5 percentage points to 73.2 per cent. The four majors have shown above-average improvement to 71.7 per cent.

ANZ remains the market leader (at 74.3 per cent) amongst the majors but has declined over the 12 months and is now only two percentage points ahead of Westpac. CBA had the biggest improvement amongst the majors over the 12 months (up 2.7 percentage points) and is now in third place and well clear of NAB.

Recent announcements of reductions in many penalty fees show the major shift in product in the retail banking space in recent months. Their actual elimination might affect these scores next year, and NAB, as instigator of this shift, may hope so.

Building societies, with a satisfaction ranking of 87.9 per cent and credit unions, at 86 per cent, continue to lead on this measure.