(1 May 2012 – Australia) A survey from business banking research firm East & Partners of 1,500 businesses has revealed that 25 percent of all Australian enterprises with an annual turnover of between A$1-$530 million have experienced a significant technical failure with their primary transaction banking services in the last six months.SME’s were the most affected, with 28.4 percent of those who experienced a
technical failure coming from this segment. The primary impact of these
technical failures ranged depending on segment, for Micro business and SME’s the
biggest impact was Lost Sales (35.6 percent and 44.1 percent respectively). For
the majority of those companies in the Corporate segment, transaction banking
failures resulted in Stopped Receivables and at the top end of town No Payroll
was the biggest consequence of their primary banks technical failures.
Not surprisingly, given their market share position and transaction volumes, the
Big Four banks were the most susceptible, with 46.3 percent of all respondents
experiencing technical failures coming from National Australia Bank (NAB),
followed by Westpac (17.1 percent), ANZ (12.1 percent) and CBA (10.9 percent).
Only 2.8 percent of businesses banking customers reporting technical failures
were transaction banked by an international bank.
East & Partners’ Head of Client Development, David Brown commented, “Payments
are now being viewed as a utility and an essential part of the infrastructure of
Australian businesses. Issues with reliability and new innovations are sometimes
contradictory as providers attempt to manage this constant balancing act.”
“System failures, however, are becoming increasing unacceptable for business as
customers look to manage their working capital and liquidity “real time”.
Clearly the costs of platform crashes are accelerating for business,” Mr Brown
added.
About East & Partners
East & Partners is Asia-Pacific’s leading business banking and advisory firm.
East’s research programs and expertise in the Institutional, Corporate, SME,
Business, Investment and Financial services markets has enabled the firm to work
with virtually every major bank within the region and international clients
based in North America and Europe.
Focusing on the needs and priorities that make every client different, East
devises and implements a strategic action plan that has a measurable return on
investment for its clients through the delivery of bespoke, thought-leadership
and multi-client research programs. This enables the firm’s clients to execute
bullet-proof regional, national and global strategies based on the “real voice”
of many thousands of business customer interviews annually.
Note: Business customer Segments
> Institutional – A$530+ million
> Corporate – A$20-530 million
> SME – A$5-20 million
> Micro – A$1-5 million
For more information or to interview East & Partners, please contact:
Sian Dowling
Marcomms & Client Services
East & Partners
t: +61-2-9004 7848
m: + 61-420 583 553
e: sian.d@eastandpartners.com