ABSA judged best at customer care by banking adjudicator

By Rob Rose - Financial Service Reporter - Business Day, Company News, 13 November, 2002

ABSA was named last night as the best of SA's big four banks when it comes to dealing with customer complaints.

The award was judged by the Banking Adjudicator, Neville Melville. The survey only rated the top four banks, with the smaller players not participating. Last year's winner was NBS, which has since been incorporated into the Nedcor stable.

Melville said that this award was meant to encourage banks to improve their efforts at customer service. "Banks often come under fire for their handling of customers. We hope that as this award grows in statue it will heighten awareness of the importance of good customer relations and will encourage banks to adopt a fair, reasonable and professional attitude to complaints," he said.

The four banks were judged according to their communication levels, staff attitude as well as errors and administrative problems. Bank charges and fees structures were also included as factors influencing Melville, but these were given a lesser weighting.

Gavin Price, from the adjudicator's office, said that complaints against "the commercial policies of the industry itself did not fall under the jurisdiction of the adjudicator. This would include such issues as credit lending and bank charges.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel recently cited "unrealistic bank charges" as one factor inhibiting the ability of the poor to save. Manuel said that the poor had been excluded from SA's financial services industry, a sector which was too exclusive, too discriminatory and a hindrance to economic development.

Price said that the number of complaints about customer service received by the adjudicator had remained steady during the year. "This is actually positive because the public is becoming increasingly aware of the adjudicator's role in addressing complaints," he said.

As the smaller banks either did not participate or had been absorbed into the "big four", this award did not provide an industry-wide benchmark of customer satisfaction across the entire banking spectrum.

A recent repot in the UK criticised that country's major banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Nat West for poor customer service. The UK's Consumers Association was quoted as saying that these banks charged credit and overdraft rates that were up to twice as high as those of smaller rivals.