Kiwibank customers 'bit less satisfied'

The Roy Morgan survey found 86.2 per cent of Kiwibank's customers were satisfied in April, down 2.9 percentage points from 89.1 per cent a year earlier.

Kiwibank has managed only occasionally to wrest top place from TSB Bank, which is in its accustomed top position this time round with a 96.8 per cent satisfaction rating, up slightly from 96 per cent a year before.

The top score by a major bank was achieved by the National Bank, where 84.2 per cent of customers were satisfied, an improvement of 4.3 percentage points from a year earlier.

The biggest improvement was by Westpac, where the percentage of those who described it as their main financial institution (MFI) and reported being satisfied increased by 8.7 percentage points to 74.7 per cent.

That large improvement moves Westpac off bottom place to be just ahead of ANZ, which has a 73 per cent customer satisfaction score, just down from 73.3 per cent a year earlier.

ASB Group came in fourth with an 84 per cent satisfaction rating, down 0.7 of a percentage point from April 2006, while Bank of New Zealand was fifth up 6.1 percentage points to 82.3 per cent.

Roy Morgan said customer satisfaction with New Zealand's five main banks was higher overall and improving at a faster rate, compared to the performance of the four major banks in Australia.

Overall New Zealand's big five scored 79.6 per cent, while Australia's four majors were at 71.5 per cent.

The survey also found that only 3.4 per cent of those "very satisfied" with their current MFI intended to switch in the next year, compared to 56.4 per cent of those who were "very dissatisfied".

Roy Morgan New Zealand finance industry director Leslie Morton said that at any time around 7.6 per cent of customers were considering a switch from their current MFI to another.

The two main reasons for considering a switch were "fees and charges" and "quality of service".

Roy Morgan said its bank satisfaction data was collected from 12,000 interviews a year in NZ and 55,000 a year in Australia.