Capitec has displaced First National Bank at the top of a list that ranks how satisfied consumers are with their bank’s online facilities.

The third annual “Internet Banking SITEisfaction” survey, conducted by online marketing research agency Columinate, has found that satisfaction among FNB clients has fallen — its score has dropped from a high 75 points last year to 69 now — while Capitec has performed strongly with an improved score of 71 points, up nine points over the 2013 survey.

Standard Bank is placed third in the ranking with a score up 56, up six points over last year, while Nedbank came in fourth with 48, which was relatively flat compared to 2013. Although Absa improved by three points, it remains by far the worst performer among the big five retail banks with just 39 points.

“Capitec scored the highest points in each category, except for device flexibility,” says Columinate CEO Henk Pretorius.

The survey used a representative sample of 1 385 people who do their banking online and asked questions to determine ease of use, information and quality, trust, innovation, device flexibility, reasonable banking fees, and communication and assurance offered by the banks through their online facilities.

Columinate collected the data between 15 and 22 March this year.

“The definition of the best overall Internet banking service provider is one that has a large percentage of highly satisfied users and a low percentage of dissatisfied users,” says Pretorius.

Capitec, he says, has emerged as a “leading player” online.

Although FNB has more comprehensive features available through its online platforms, Capitec has been successful by offering simple and affordable services to its online clients. “Capitec outshone the rest by focusing on … reasonable banking fees, trust and ease of use”.

“People trust Capitec with their money.”

Pretorius emphasises, however, that consumer satisfaction with FNB remains “very high” and that the bank scores particularly well for innovation and device flexibility (the number of devices consumers can use to do their banking).

Consumers are not as enamoured of the bank’s recently redesigned website, however, with only 48% saying it’s an improvement on the old site. The remaining 52% of respondents say the new site is “the same or worse”, although Pretorius says people tend to be resistant to change and perceptions may improve over time.

However, the redesigned website has “not got them where they’d like to be”, he says.

Absa, meanwhile, has performed consistently poorly in the three years the survey has been running. Pretorius says this is because of a number of factors, including perceptions among consumers that its banking fees are too high and that consumer trust in its ability to keep their money safe is relatively low.

“Absa has consistently had lower security perceptions than other banks,” says Pretorius. “In fact, Absa does the worst in almost all of the areas we looked at. It has very low perceptions of being innovative and its trust scores are very low.”

He says the percentage of users who “completely trust” Absa with their money is a low 24%. Although that’s up from 20% last year, it’s poor next to Capitec at 43% (the highest) and FNB at 31% (in second place).

Although Absa offers many if not all of the same features as other banks, Pretorius says it has failed to educate its customers well about what it has available to them through its online channels. “Absa is not doing a good job of awareness.” — © 2014 NewsCentral Media