(21 May 2012 – Australia) The second in a survey series of bank reputation with business customers shows mixed movement in the opinion of 1,020 businesses on the reputation of the sector despite ongoing negative commentary about banks and interest rates in the past six months.The Bank Reputation Index (BRI) by East & Partners and Daymark PR surveyed
business customers in late-March 2012 and for the first time examined the
influence of the ‘micro-business’ segment – businesses with less than $1 million
in annual turnover – on bank reputation.
Key findings from the survey are:
-
In response to the question “on a scale of 1-10 (1=strongly agree, 10=strongly
disagree) would you say Australia’s banking industry as a whole has a good
reputation?” Australian businesses rate the industry a 7.0 (6.9 in September
2011); -
Results vary across sectors: reputation amongst small to medium sized
enterprises (SME) improved slightly over the six months while reputation among
corporate clients declined; -
Overall the micro segment of the business community remains the least impressed
about the reputation of the banking industry; -
The institutional segment is by far the most positive when it comes to rating by
banking sector.
The Bank Reputation Index was launched in October 2011 to act as a business
specific measure of customer views about their bank. This follows a steady
decline in the correlation between customer satisfaction measures and commercial
outcomes for banks such as cross sell and customer acquisition. Reputation has
been identified as having a strong predictive correlation with these outcomes.
Paul Dowling, Principal Analyst of the financial services research firm East &
Partners said the latest results confirm the significant difference in
reputation across segments.
“The micro and SME segments remain a challenge for banks with their reputation
well towards the negative end of the scale while very large businesses have a
more positive view of the reputation of the industry.”
Richard Peters, Director at Daymark, said the second index also confirms the
wide range of views about the reputation of different banks.
“For the second time we have seen reputation differences between the four majors
with ANZ leading the reputation rankings with business customers and Westpac
trailing the pack. The more positive end of the index remains dominated by the
regional banks.”
The March 2011 Bank Reputation Index is a follow up snapshot on the in-depth
analysis of bank reputation and its drivers by East & Partners and Daymark in
September 2011.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Richard Peters
Director, Daymark PR
richard.peters@daymarkpr.com.au
P 02 9922 8610
M 0438 582 919
www.daymarkpr.com.au
Sian Dowling
East & Partners
sian.d@eastandpartners.com
P 02 9004 7848
M 0420 583 553
www.eastandpartners.com
ABOUT THE INDEX
The Bank Reputation Index (BRI) is a joint initiative between East & Partners
and Daymark. The BRI is an index of business customer views on banking
reputation. The BRI is based on interviews Australia-wide with over 1000
business enterprises.
East & Partners is a leading specialist market research and analysis firm
working in Asia Pacific’s corporate, investment, business and SME banking and
financial service-markets, providing both multi-client and bespoke research and
consulting services to client banks and financial services providers.
Daymark is a Sydney and Melbourne based consultancy which specialises in
reputation and issues management. Daymark helps organisations identify and
navigate public issues and opportunities to protect and build their brand.