The Commonwealth Bank plans to capitalise on NAB's weakness in customer service
THE Commonwealth Bank is planning to attack NAB's prized business customer base as the mortgage battle flares into all-out war between Australia's major lenders.
The Commonwealth, Australia's largest bank, plans to capitalise on National Australia Bank's weakness in customer service, where it has the lowest ranking of the big four in business banking, The Australian reports.
It ran a series of full-page newspaper ads over the weekend and launched a website with a contentious address, www.comm bank.com.au/nabbed, to convince NAB business customers to switch banks.
The Commonwealth Bank also claimed NAB had been secretly increasing a liquidity margin above the standard reference rate that it required its business customers to pay.
Late last year NAB increased its margins by 0.3 per cent annually to add up to 0.95 per cent above the base rate. Commonwealth business banking group executive Ian Narev said his bank did not charge a liquidity margin.
"There are a couple of things going on (at NAB) that we think are disingenuous," Mr Narev told The Australian.
"We have always had a very strong focus on business banking.
"We have been seeing in the DBM surveys that NAB is the worst performer in customer satisfaction.
"We are getting fed up that the debate that has been going on has been centred on just a couple of retail products."
Competition between the top four banks is at levels not seen for at least a decade.
NAB began the battle last week with its "break-up" campaign, targeting its rivals' mortgage customers.
The CBA and Westpac intensified and broadened the conflict to include a range of lending-rate discounts and switching payments on business loans.
The business banking attack could damage NAB, which has the largest business banking division in Australia but languishes in satisfaction surveys.
"That makes their customers the obvious customers that we would like to appeal to," Mr Narev said.
