Local banks top in customer survey, HSBC trails

New Zealand-owned banks TSB and PSIS have topped the latest Consumers' Institute survey of customer satisfaction.

Both scored a 98 per cent approval rating, with ASB Bank, Kiwibank and National Bank all given ratings higher than 90 per cent.

HSBC was given the lowest satisfaction rating for the third year running, at 47 per cent.

BNZ, ANZ and Westpac were all below the average approval rating of 84 per cent.

The Consumer survey is the largest survey of its kind, with more than 8200 respondents from a random selection of 12,000 Consumer subscribers.

PSIS chief executive Girol Karacaoglu said personal service was "absolutely critical".

"We know all our customers by name or at least we try to. They are not numbers, they are people," he told National Radio.

"Whether you are a millionaire or earn $10,000 a year, you are treated exactly the same."

TSB managing director Kevin Rimmington said his bank concentrated on personal banking rather than corporate banking, and put its customers first.

Kiwibank chief executive Sam Knowles admitted that PSIS and TSB had a headstart as they operated at a very local level.

At the bottom of the rankings, 42 per cent of HSBC customers surveyed complained about poor customer service.

They said the bank's telephone banking system was overly complicated and they often had communication problems with call centre staff based offshore.

HSBC chief executive Norman Wilson said mergers and acquisitions involving the bank over the past three years had caused some "confusion" but he was confident ratings would improve.

He pointed out that only 45 customers out of a total of 50,000 took part in the survey.

Finance workers union Finsec said that if big banks wanted to improve the respect and faith of their customers, they needed to stop putting sales, technology advances and profit ahead of long-term customer relationships.

"The banks that have done the best in this survey are those that have focused on their communities and invested in their retail networks," said general secretary Andrew Casidy.

- NZPA

* An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Sam Knowles was chief executive of the Consumers' Instutue.