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Westpac bank - Source: ONE News -
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The finance sector's union says its online survey into customer satisfaction with Australian-owned banks confirms many are not happy.
Finsec says the results will be a wake up call to the industry and highlight the need for the government to step in to make banking in New Zealand fairer.
In the survery, ASB came out on top with 55% satisfaction, followed by BNZ (46%), National (43%), with Westpac and ANZ at the bottom of the list with 40%.
Finsec campaigns director Andrew Campbell says the Trans-Tasman polling carried out by the unions shows it's time for the banking industry to change.
He told TVNZ's Breakfast programme that more customers are dissatisfied than satisfied with their banks and rather than attack the way the independent survey was carried out, the banks would be better to listen to the results.
"We have been concerned for a long time about the way in which banks operate in NZ," says Campbell, adding that around the world the behaviour of banks is right at the top of the list of economic problems.
Campbell says it came out strongly in the survey that people think banks should act in the national interest, not just their own profit interest. Given the size of banks in relation to the domestic economy, that's pretty essential, says Campbell.
He says pay systems banks operate incentivise staff to sell debt products to people - a move the union has criticised as leading to bad behaviours.
"Customers say they want better staffing levels and an end to the target-based pay systems that reward bank staff for selling debt products.
"Customers and workers would like to have an honest banking relationship."
Campbell says the current approach that has seen branches understaffed, workers pushed to sell debt, jobs sent overseas to be done cheaper while interest rates go up, bank CEOs get huge pay packages and massive profits that go offshore, is unsustainable and must change.
"The New Zealand public are fed up with the banks' behaviour and want the government to do something it."
The Better Banking survey showed one in 10 customers want to change banks but feel trapped by the cost and time needed to move accounts. But most customers indicated they were happier with new technology that made their financial lives easier.
The survey also showed that 86% of customers wanted banks to stop off-shoring New Zealand jobs, while 42% believed their bank was getting worse at showing a commitment to employing New Zealanders.
Some 78% of people surveyed thought there should be changes to how bank staff were paid and that sales targets should be de-linked from remuneration.
The survey also showed 92% of customers said staff should be paid for providing professional customer service, not just selling products, and 85% said they would be less likely to see their financial advice as impartial if it is not.
Eighty-nine percent customers agreed that banks should balance their corporate interests with New Zealand's interests, 81% of customers supported new global rules to prevent high risk banking activities.
Of those surveyed, 52% said they always had to wait in a queue or on hold for service, and 37% felt that customer service had got worse.
