New research from JD Power’s 2020 Australia Retail Banking Satisfaction Study has crowned Heritage Bank as the financial institution with the happiest customers.

Not only was the data able to rank institutions by customer satisfaction, but it revealed a chasm between the customer satisfaction across a number of midsize banks in comparison with Australia’s banking big four.

The Australia Retail Banking Satisfaction Study measures customer satisfaction with the products and services provided by their primary financial institution, with the study measuring overall satisfaction in six key factors, which were weighted according to importance: channel activities, convenience, product and fees, communication and advice, account opening, and problem resolution.

Based on a 1,000-point scale, Heritage Bank recorded a total score of 872.

In second place was ING, scoring a total 843 points.

Bendigo Bank (824), People’s Choice Credit Union (815) and CUA (788) rounded out the top five.

Heritage Bank was almost 100 points clear of the front-runner of the big four – the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) scored 776 points.

It put CBA slightly higher than NAB (771), ANZ (762) and Westpac (758).  

The average customer satisfaction score across the big four was also lower than the midsize bank average, at just 768 compared with 785 for midsize banks.