Chinese customers feel more satisfied with services from medium-sized banks than with the country's top three State banks, according to a national survey of 4,684 customers conducted by marketing information firm Market Probe China.

China Merchants Bank, a mid-sized lender based in Shenzhen, took the crown as the bank customers are most satisfied with, according to the survey.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest bank by market value, failed to make the top ten in Market Probe's banking customer satisfaction list. The other two of China's top three banks, China Construction Bank (CCB) and Bank of China (BOC), tied for seventh place.

Although independent surveys of customer satisfaction have become industry standards in most developed countries, they are rarely seen in China.

Market Probe's survey is the first independent and unbiased survey of customer satisfaction in China's banking industry. Xu Jingkui, president of Market Probe China, said his company plans to conduct such surveys every year. It asked customers to rate seven different categories of retail banking services in Chinese banks: branch experience, credit card, personal loan, wealth management, private banking, telephone banking and Internet banking.

Medium-sized banks such as China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Industrial Bank topped Market Probe's customer satisfaction list in all categories.

Market Probe's survey is based on answers from Internet users through Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com's finance section from Dec 15, 2008 to March 28, 2009.

(China Daily April 7, 2009)