NZ-owned banks provide more satisfaction

New Zealand-owned banks outperformed their Ausssie rivals in Consumer NZ's latest banking survey. Photo: Dean Purcell.

Locally-owned banks provide higher levels of satisfaction for their customers, a new Consumer NZ survey has found.

The organisation's latest banking survey involved more than 9000 members - 89 per cent of which rated their bank's service as good or very good, a level of satisfaction "markedly higher than for ISPs, energy companies and mobile service providers," chief executive Sue Chetwin said.

Unlike in yesterday's Cricket World Cup final, New Zealand-owned banks outperformed their Ausssie rivals, with the Co-operative Bank and TSB both achieving scores of 99 per cent.

SBS and Kiwibank followed closely with scores of 98 per cent and 96 per cent.

The larger banks were weaker on their overall service ratings and despite improving since the last survey, ANZ remained the bottom-ranked bank on 87 per cent.

Local banks also rated higher on specific factors including 'value for money' - where more than 90 percent of the Co-operative Bank, SBS and TSB customers rated their bank highly, compared with about half of ANZ and Westpac customers.

Two-thirds of members rated their bank as good or very good on both 'value for money' and 'competitive rates and fees'.

The survey also revealed that 6 per cent of Kiwibank customers had only joined the bank, switching from another, in the previous 12 months.

Members logic for joining locally-owned banks could be seen in survey comments including; "Belonging to a New Zealand-owned bank is very important to me".

Bank switching was low overall, with 3 per cent of members having switched banks in the previous 12 months.

The popularity of internet banking was highlighted by 89 per cent of survey respondents saying they used it regularly, while a mere 12 per cent said they regularly used branch banking.

Although just over a third of members had used a smartphone banking app, ASB, BNZ and Kiwibank had highly rated apps with, 93 per cent of users rating them good or very good.