Westpac is still Australia's favourite business bank
Westpac Banking Corporation once again emerges as Australia's most favourite business bank despite declining customer satisfaction amongst the nation's four largest lenders since the since the November interest rate hike, research shows.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) edged ahead of Westpac to become the most favoured bank by large businesses with an annual turnover of at least $50 million, DBM Consultants' monthly nationwide survey of businesses found.
But Westpac is the top rated bank by micro, small and medium sized businesses, even after passing on a 35 basis point rise to customers in November.
"November's interest rate changes may have influenced recent results and created downward pressure on the ratings, more so for Westpac, CBA and National Australia Bank than for ANZ (Banking Group)," DBM managing director Dhruba Gupta said in a statement.
DBM's rolling monthly survey checked the pulse of 7,576 businesses across Australia, 88.7 per cent of which are micro-sized, or have annual turnovers of less than $1 million.
This segment was the most sensitive to the interest rate rise in November, although a decline in overall satisfaction levels were experienced by three of the big four banks.
ANZ Banking Group was an outlier, avoiding a deterioration in its ratings from the previous month, DBM said.