Banking News

Performance expectations get tougher for Banks downunder

(Australia) - In the latest release of customer satisfaction metrics across virtually all corporate banking product groups, levels of importance attached to particular product areas and relationship factors by customers are high and growing amongst Australian corporates.

Of the 26 measures taken in a 6-monthly analysis of bank performance by industry analysts East & Partners, only 2 (Commercial Paper and Short Term Domestic Debt) are rated by the markets in total as being of less importance than at June 2001 and only 5 of less than average (mid-point on the 1-5 rating scale) importance to them. Notably, debt and some of the financial markets product lines are deemed least important to the customer, whilst many of the relationship banking factors are rated as being critically important. There is of course, some correlation between these two sets of measures - service areas in which a bank is seen to be performing poorly, often attract high importance ratings for that very reason; they are problem areas for the customer.

The 5 products and/or service attributes of most importance to corporate and institutional CFOs in this March 2002 sweep are:

Notably, of these, the 6 most important are not concerned with products; they are all concerned with the level of commitment displayed by the bank to the customer's business needs and the way(s) in which the bank endeavours to satisfy those needs.

The 5 measures seen as least important by corporate and institutions in their corporate banking "partnerships" remain equally instructive:

Comparisons between these importance ratings and customer satisfaction assessments attached to the same products and relationship factors demonstrate that the industry is generally performing okay in those areas rated less important by customers and best in those products and service attributes seen as more important. There is major variation by individual bank in these measures however.