SBS Bank, Kiwibank once again secure top status in monthly Roy Morgan consumer satisfaction survey

By Gareth Vaughan

SBS Bank and Kiwibank have, yet again, secured victory in the financial services categories of Roy Morgan Research's monthly consumer satisfaction awards.

The Major Bank of the Month, the category for banks with at least 7.5% market share, was again Kiwibank in August. And the broader Financial Institution of the Month for August once again went to SBS.

Since Roy Morgan launched the awards in January of last year, Kiwibank has been major bank of the month every month, as well as for the 2011 year, beating off its bigger, Australian owned rivals, - sister banks ANZ and National, ASB, BNZ and Westpac NZ. Second behind Kiwibank for August was BNZ with the National Bank third, ASB fourth and ANZ fifth.

In the financial institution category SBS has been dominant, winning in eight of the 12 months last year, the 2011 annual award, and now seven of eight months so far this year. The Co-operative Bank has won three months and TSB Bank two.

Filling out August's top five in the financial institution category was the Co-operative Bank in second, TSB Bank in third, AA Financial Services & Insurance fourth, and Kiwibank fifth.

A requirement for the financial institution award is that Roy Morgan receives at least 100 respondents from customers of any institution over a six month period. Those in the running for August, other than the top five, were ANZ, ASB, BNZ, National Bank, Westpac, AMP, AXA, GE Money, Rabobank, and Tower.

SBS's August customer satisfaction level was 95% and Kiwibank's 85%.

See more on the awards in this Double Shot interview with Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine here.  And see how Roy Morgan scores customer satisfaction here.