How does your bank rank

St George Bank has beaten its big four competitors in a new ranking of business banking customer satisfaction released yesterday.

St George’s rating of 6.05 out of 10 put it ahead of NAB, on 5.61, and Westpac and ANZ on 5.07 in the survey of 850 companies with turnover of between $5 million and $500 million conducted by independent banking consultancy East & Partners last month.

“St George, traditionally a strong relationship bank to business customers, is the best performed of the larger banks, but given that it ranked 6.05 out of 10, there is clearly room for improvement for it and all the banks,” East & Partners client advisory senior manager Robert Morgan says.

The worst performed of Australia’s major banks was the Commonwealth Bank, with staff responsible for business banking in the companies surveyed giving it a score of just 4.14 out of 10 for its business banking services.

At the other end of the scale, regional banks performed particularly well – their collective rating of 6.54 out of 10 reflecting the closer relationship with customers many of these smaller banks are able to achieve.

East & Partners’ report comes as Australia’s banks prepare to introduce changes that will make it easier for retail and business customers to switch between banks.

A report by the Australian Payments Clearing Association revealed that 3.1% of Australian banking customers switch accounts each year, below the 4% to 6% who switch in Britain. A recent Nielsen FICM report found that concern about the time it takes to access new services was a key disincentive for people to switch banks.

Banks such as ING Direct, BankWest and ANZ are reportedly in favour of reforms that would make switching between banks easier.