Bank Reputation the New Profit Driver

(31 October 2011 – Australia) In the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, customer satisfaction no longer leads to improved commercial outcomes for Australia’s banks.Paul Dowling, Principal Analyst of leading financial services research firm East
& Partners said bank reputation is now a primary indicator of improved wallet
share, cross sell and customer acquisition.

East & Partners and Daymark PR today launched the Bank Reputation Index (BRI), a
quarterly ranking of reputation of Australian banks among business customers. It
is based on 1325 interviews with customers in the SME, Corporate, and
Institutional business banking segments.

The Index shows that customer satisfaction now has a weak correlation with
increased take up of bank products and services. Reputation has emerged as the
new profit driver.

Richard Peters, Director Daymark, said the BRI has been developed to provide
insights into the role reputation plays in delivering improved commercial
outcomes for the banking sector.

Results from the first Bank Reputation Index show:

• NAB is ranked #1 for best business bank
  reputation by the market, and best reputation with SME, and Corporate
  customers;

• Westpac holds the position of best reputation as
  an Institutional bank;

• CBA for the best reputation as a retail bank.

The market view of a bank’s reputation is however different from the customer
view:

• BoQ is the highest rated for reputation for
  business banking overall by its own customers and also leads the SME segment.
  The nearest major bank is NAB ranked at number 4 on reputation by its
  customers;

• NAB holds the highest reputation ranking by its
  own corporate customers, and CBA by its own Institutional customers.

“When it comes to reputation the gap between the perception of a bank’s
reputation as a business bank and the experience of customers points to both
risks and opportunities for banks chasing the business customer,” said Richard
Peters.

Paul Dowling of East & Partners said that according to the survey CEO salary was
a more significant driver of reputation than a bank’s corporate social
responsibility activities.

“Overall the CEO’s income is rated as having a strong affect on the reputation
of a bank by business customers (1.8 where 1 is significant and 5 insignificant)
whereas the banks’ corporate social responsibility activities (2.7) were seen as
having a relatively neutral affect on reputation,” he said.

Richard Peters of Daymark said the research shows the key drivers of reputation
are:

• Having business banking as a bank’s main focus.
  This is the single most important driver of bank reputation with nearly 60% of
  respondents nominating this factor;

• The next most important drivers were service and
  product offerings at 7% and 6% of responses.

The October 2011 Bank Reputation Index is the first in a quarterly survey
series that will track the reputation of banks in Australia.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

A summary of the Bank Reputation Index results can be obtained from:

ABOUT THE INDEX

The Bank Reputation Index (BRI) is a joint initiative between East & Partners
and Daymark Public Relations. The BRI is a quarterly index of business customer
views on banking reputation. The BRI is based on interviews Australia-wide with
over 1300 enterprises earning over $A1M and above per year.

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 specialist public relations company focussed on improving
the reputation of their varied clients. With over 20 years experience in the
public relations field, Daymark is in a prime position to understand the links
between reputation and commercial outcomes.