Bendigo Bank, Bankwest & ING home loan customers are the most satisfied with their bank after two years of interest rate rises
New financial data from Roy Morgan’s Single Source shows Bendigo Bank has topped the latest banking customer satisfaction ratings among home loan customers in early 2024. Bendigo Bank home loan customer satisfaction is a market leading 87.7% in March 2024.
In second place was Bankwest with customer satisfaction among home loan customers at 86.6%. The owner of Bankwest, the Commonwealth Bank, recently announced plans to close or re-badge all 60 Bankwest branches in Western Australia by the end of the year.
Filling out the top four banks are ING on 84.6% and Macquarie in fourth on 79.9%.
St. George, the fifth placed bank, is one of the few to increase customer satisfaction over the last year, up 0.8% points to 78.5%. Suncorp Bank, which received final approval for its merger with ANZ in early March[1], experienced the largest increase in customer satisfaction compared to a year ago, up 5.6% points to 77.6%.
The latest data covers the six months to March 2024 and overall home loan customer satisfaction amongst Australia’s top banks collectively was at 74.9% during this period. This represents a collective decrease of 1.1% points from a year ago (six months to March 2023).
In March 2024 CBA had the highest home loan customer satisfaction among the big four banks, with a rating of 76.1%. Average home loan customer satisfaction with the big four banks as a group was 72.7%.
Customer satisfaction ratings of home loan banking customers: March 2023 cf. March 2024
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, Oct. 2022 – Mar. 2023, n = 35,490, Oct. 2023 – Mar. 2024, n = 35,887.
Base: Australians aged 14+. *The ten banks reported have a minimum sample size of at least 200 for the periods reported.
The following are a few reasons why home loan customers are satisfied with their banks:
- “Market leading home loan offering with offset account” & “Being able to contact a branch directly - not necessarily having to do everything through a call centre” - Bendigo Bank Home Loan Customers.
- “So easy to transact; get loans; all done from the app on my smartphone” & “Their customer service is exceptional - I always feel valued and supported whenever I interact with them” - NAB Home Loan Customers.
- “Competitive home loan rate; easy to set up multiple offset accounts; The app is useful; the marketplace discounts have saved us some money” – Macquarie Home Loan Customers.
- “Competitive interest rates on home loans; low fees and good online banking services” & “ANZ is a leading bank with lots of locations and helpful staff. I feel supported by them in person and with their technology” – ANZ Home Loan Customers.
- “They are always available whenever I call with a home loan query” & “Good interest for my loan” and “Westpac supports many local businesses in Australia which seems like a good thing to do in my opinion” – Westpac Home Loan Customers.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says Bendigo Bank has maintained an outstanding level of home loan customer satisfaction throughout the last two years as the Reserve Bank made a record-breaking series of interest rate increases from 0.1% to the current level of 4.35%:
“Home loan customer satisfaction for Australia’s top banks was at 74.9% in the six months to March 2024, down slightly from a year ago (76.0%). The current level of home loan customer satisfaction is almost identical to that in December 2019 (74.0%) – immediately prior to the pandemic.
“During the pandemic the peak for home loan customer satisfaction across the top banks was in the six months to February 2021 at 80.2%. In retrospect, the fact home loan customer satisfaction peaked during this period is no surprise given there were around 450,000[2] mortgagors who were given ‘mortgage holidays’ with loan repayments deferred in 2020-21.
“Soon after that mortgage repayments resumed for hundreds of thousands of borrowers and home loan customer satisfaction began to drift downwards. Over the last two years there has been the additional impost of rising interest rates.
“The RBA raised interest rates on 13 separate occasions from May 2022 to November 2023, up by a cumulative total of 4.25% points to 4.35%. The cycle of interest rate increases is the fastest, and largest on record since the RBA gained its independence in the early 1990s.
“Because of the way interest rates operate in the economy it takes up to 2 years to see the full impact of an official interest rate increase. Given this time lag we are still yet to see all of the impact of the current cycle of increases which will continue to hit households throughout this year.
“This combination of factors has caused a sustained decline in home loan customer satisfaction since the peak just over three years ago in early 2021. The level of satisfaction is now approaching the lows experienced pre-pandemic. The lowest level of home loan satisfaction yet measured was in the six months to July 2019 at 73% – just beneath the current level.
“Over the last two years not only have interest rates been increasing, but nearly 1.5 million[3] mortgagors on fixed rate mortgages had their loans mature and reset to far higher rates – a huge slice of the Australian mortgage market.
“During 2024, another 450,000+[4] mortgagors on fixed rate mortgages are set to re-set to far higher interest rates. These factors mean there is still more tightening built into the market – even without further increases from the RBA.
“Looking at the banks it is Bendigo Bank which has excelled during the last year with the highest home loan customer satisfaction at 87.7%, just ahead of Bankwest (86.6%) which is set to go all digital by the end of the year. Close behind the top two are ING (84.6%), Macquarie (79.9%), St. George (78.5%) and Suncorp (77.6%) – Suncorp increase of 5.6 percentage points over the last year the best of any bank.
“The big four banks were led by the Commonwealth Bank with a home loan customer satisfaction rating of 76.1%, ahead of NAB on 71.8%, ANZ on 70.3% and Westpac on 68.7%.”
These latest banking satisfaction ratings come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.
Related research findings
For further in-depth analysis, view the Consumer Banking Customer Satisfaction Report or the various Banking and Finance Currency Reports.
For comments or more information about Roy Morgan’s banking satisfaction data please contact:
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[1] Australian Competition & Consumer Commission response to the Australian Competition Tribunal’s decision to approve the merger between ANZ and Suncorp’s banking business (March 5, 2024). https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-update-on-tribunal%E2%80%99s-decision-to-authorise-anzs-acquisition-of-suncorp
[2] Australian Banking Association: https://www.ausbanking.org.au/one-year-on-banks-ready-to-support-customers-as-more-resume-repayments
[3] RBA Bulletin: Fixed-rate Housing Loans: Monetary Policy Transmission and Financial Stability Risks: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/fixed-rate-housing-loans-monetary-policy-transmission-and-financial-stability-risks.html
[4] Ibid.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
