(28 October 2016 – Australia) CommBank has set its sights firmly on ANZ’s long standing Business FX market leadership mantle.
East & Partners’ 41st round of Business FX – Australia service shows Commbank has almost drawn level for market wide Spot FX relationship share (21 percent) vs ANZ (21.4 percent) after successfully reaching best of breed risk product status in FX Options (24.5 percent) and Forward FX (34.3 percent).
A key determinant of CommBank’s success has been the bank’s concerted mind share improvements, accelerating seven percent year-on-year to a record high 16.9 percent as ANZ (27 percent) loses recognition at a rate of seven percent YOY. NAB continues to offset high customer churn among SMBs and Commercials in particular with outstanding wallet share outperformance, recording best of breed wallet share outcomes in all three segments focusing closely on “customer quality.”
Westpac is surging in Spot FX, highlighted as the fastest growing Big Four major advancing primary relationship share market wide by six percent and driven “top down” with strong double-digit gains in the high value Mid-Market. This compares favourably to a three percent YOY advance market wide for CommBank and customer churn of one percent and four percent YOY for NAB and ANZ, respectively.
Non-bank providers are struggling to make in-roads into the highly competitive Business FX market, capturing a cumulative 20.5 percent primary Spot FX relationship share. Convera (9.4 percent), World First (2.4 percent), Wise, Airwallex and others are largely relegated to secondary status for one-off or infrequent needs (i.e. keeping primary provider “honest”) with a cumulative 31.4 percent secondary Spot FX share. In contrast the Big Four account for a growing 73.7 percent of primary Spot FX relationships vs 57.6 percent of secondary Spot FX relationships.
As key decision makers continue to direct FX hedging execution away from FX Options to Forward FX, focus turns to the growing strength of ANZ among Mid-Market enterprises (34.5 percent) vs CommBank’s dominance among Commercials (33.6 percent) and newly accessible SMB Forward FX segment (37.9 percent).
About the Business FX – Australia service: the research is built on direct interviews with 2,593 decision-makers responsible for treasury banking and FX relationships, across three turnover segments: SMB (A$1 to 20 million), Commercial (A$20 to 100 million) and Mid-Market (A$100 to 725 million). The latest round, delivered to clients in October, marks the 41st round of the service, having been continually in market for over 20 years.