ANZ Bank Satisfaction Rating Plummets Due to Break Away from RBA Rate Decisions

ANZ Bank caught the country's banking industry thrice in 2012 after it first went against the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) policy to hike its standard variable mortgage rate when the central bank kept the overnight cash rate on hold. In the second instance, ANZ kept a part of the cash rate cut and slashed the interest rate below the RBA rate reduction.

This June, ANZ again surprised the banking community by passing in full the last 25-basis points rate cut made by the RBA. However, the apparent change of stand has failed to appease angry customers who were disappointed by ANZ's previous moves.

The latest survey confirmed client disappointment. The ANZ logged the lowest satisfaction rating in May among the big four of 6.8 out of 10. It was a decline from the 6.9 in April.

In contrast, the National Australia Bank logged a 7 rating while Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia both got 7.3 rating.

The survey was made by DBM Business Financial Services Monitor. Dhruba Gupta, the managing director of DBM, said ANZ's May score was the lowest since NAB secured a 6.7 rating in February 2011.

He pointed out that ANZ's satisfaction rating has been declining monthly since December 2011. The survey had more than 7,000 respondents who are decision makers in business banking.

Christopher Page, the former chief risk officer of ANZ until late 2011, explained the growing public dislike for banks to the industry's culture of greed and its failure to look after customers' interests that led to broken trust.

"A lot of organisations now are too inwardly focused, too worried about internal politics and the rate of return," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Mr Page's recent speech before University of Melbourne students.

He also pointed to excessive bank executive bonuses. Mr Page disclosed that in many bank meetings, the topic of executive discussions are mostly bonuses and not about customers.

The former ANZ official lambasted the greed of investment bankers which resulted in customers becoming irrelevant and even looked down. Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs employee, in an opinion column in The New York Times in March, confirmed Mr Page's comment. Mr Smith disclosed that Goldman managing directors referred to clients as muppets.

"That trust was broken and that trust is not being repaired - and it probably will take more than the rest of my life for that trust to be restored," Mr Page said.