RC spurs fall in satisfaction with big four

Roy Morgan’s Customer Satisfaction-Consumer Banking in Australia September Report, which involved a year-long survey of 4,000 bank customers per month, has revealed that customer satisfaction in Australia’s banks has dropped from 81.2 per cent in the six months prior to the financial services royal commission (January 2018) to 78.5 per cent in the six months to September 2018.

However, Roy Morgan noted that bank satisfaction levels are “well above the long-term average” and 18.8 per cent higher than the 58.7 per cent recorded in 2001, before the improving trend.

Reflecting on the research, Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan, said: “Given the continuing barrage of negative publicity from the royal commission, mainly focused on the big four, it is not surprising that satisfaction with them has shown the greatest decline this year.

“What needs to be noted, however, is that contrary to all the negative reporting on banks, the clear majority of their customers are satisfied with them and that only around 6 per cent claim to be dissatisfied.”

Mr Morris added: “Despite a decline in bank satisfaction this year that coincides with the royal commission and other negative publicity, current levels remain well above the long-term average over the period from 2001 and in fact are 20 percentage points above the level in that year.

“The release of the royal commission’s interim report represents a major challenge to retain bank satisfaction levels as it has recapped on a lot of problem areas.”

Further, according to the Roy Morgan research, among the top 10, Bendigo Bank customers were most satisfied with their bank (88.8 per cent), followed by ING (88.0 per cent), Bank of Queensland (87.2 per cent), Bankwest (82.9 per cent), St. George Bank (82.3 per cent) and Suncorp Bank (80.4 per cent).

The big four banks rounded off the top 10, with customer satisfaction at 77.1 per cent with Commonwealth Bank, followed by NAB (75.3 per cent), ANZ (75.0 per cent) and Westpac (72.9 per cent).

Moreover, the survey found that the most positive movers in satisfaction ratings since the royal commission were ING (up by 2.8 per cent) and Bank of Queensland (up by 1.4 per cent).

Conversely, satisfaction dropped for all the major banks, with Westpac reporting the sharpest decline (down by 5 per cent).

[Related: Customers less likely to back their bank]