African Bank top scorer of SA’s six biggest banks

JOHANNESBURG – African Bank customers were the most satisfied of the country’s six biggest banks in 2019, the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) for Banking reported yesterday.

African Bank toppled Capitec which had been leading the index for six years at a high score of 85 points, a seven-point improvement from the 2018 SA-csi.

Capitec scored 84 points, followed by Nedbank with 80.2 points and FNB 79 points, who were all above the industry average of 78.2 points. Absa and Standard Bank were below par, scoring 76.8 and 75.3 points respectively.

The survey found that customers were placing far more emphasis on perceived value and the need for banks to retain a human touch. “To compete successfully banks will need to continue innovating in the digital space, but also introduce equally innovative service delivery models within their more traditional channels such as branches, ATMs and contact centres,” the study said. It surveyed nearly 15000 customers from lower, middle and upper retail-banking segments on their overall level of satisfaction with Absa, African Bank, Capitec, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.

African Bank chief executive, Basani Maluleke, said the group had worked hard over the past 12 months to improve all aspects of its customer engagement.