Bank boss with a fistful of dollars and a point to prove

No, it is not a rude gesture as some might conclude, given that the bank reported a 15 per cent rise in annual profit, to $2.19 billion, last week.

It is an index finger. It stands for ``ask once" and symbolises what could well be Westpac boss David Morgan's way of proving to customers he is worth the more than $1 million pay rise he received last year.

The annual report revealed that Dr Morgan earned $3.58 million last year. This included a $1.65 million bonus (up from $1.1 million) a reward largely relating to the board's view that he did a good job in ``repositioning the bank".

This is despite Westpac's shares performing worse than those of the other major banks last year.

Dr Morgan insisted last week that the bank ``had a very good year". He also pointed out that executives did ``disproportionately well in a good year and disproportionately badly in a bad year".

Even though the four banks' share prices have not done as well as in the past, and their profit growth expectations have dimmed, their combined after-tax profits rose to $10 billion.

As for that finger Dr Morgan has embarked on a drive, known as the ``ask once" program, to differentiate Westpac from its peers on customer service.

He said the bank would extend branch opening hours and solve customer problems more quickly.

Under the program, the bank staff member who is first approached by the customer will take responsibility for solving that problem. Typically, the process has involved three staff members, according to the bank.

On its own figures, a fifth of its five million customers experienced some issue that left them dissatisfied with Westpac's service, but only about 4000 a month were reported to the bank. About 40 per cent of these had to approach the bank four or more times before the issue was fully acknowledged, let alone resolved.

Westpac has not gone the way ANZ did in 1994, however, when it promised to pay $5 to any customer left standing in a queue for more than five minutes (this offer was quietly killed off in 1997).

The finance policy officer for the Australian Consumers Association, Catherine Wolthuizen, said Westpac's commitment was ``a substantial change to the notion that staff at all levels would be now responsible for dealing with complaints, and that is a welcome change because it takes the onus of the process off the customers and onto the bank".

The association would release a bank customer satisfaction survey next week. She said Westpac and ANZ appeared to be ``trying to do more than lip service".