Bank merger receives mixed reviews

Gail Kelly

New research has revealed Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly has a way to go in convincing both banks’ customers and the general public that the benefits of the proposed St George merger reach beyond her company’s shareholders.

The CoreData survey of 1,122 individuals, 422 of which were either St George or Westpac customers, showed that two in five Australians and 40.8 per cent of existing St George and Westpac customers believe there will be no positive outcomes from the merger.

The independent research, which was conducted on Monday, also revealed that 7 in 10 respondents expect job losses to occur and more than 60 per cent expect bank branch closures as a result of the merger.

CoreData head of market intelligence Craig Phillips added that only 11.9 per cent of the banks’ customers believed they would get better quality service if the two entities merged.

“St George has long positioned itself as a ‘customer-centric’ bank, yet all Australian banks are public companies with the first obligation being to shareholders,” he said.

“However, when respondents were asked whether each bank was customer or profit focused, interestingly Westpac was deemed much more profit driven than St George, and this was reflected among customers and non-customers of both banks.”