Kiwibank

Kiwibank
State-owned enterprise
Founded May 2001
Headquarters Wellington, New Zealand
Key people
  • Paul Brock (Chief Executive)
  • Rob Morrison (Chairman of Board of Directors)
Products Banking and financial services
Number of employees
 2375+
Parent New Zealand Post
Website www.kiwibank.co.nz
This PostShop in Wellesley Street, Auckland, New Zealand, also serves as a branch of Kiwibank.

Kiwibank Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state-owned enterprise New Zealand Post Limited. Through Kiwibank, New Zealand Post provides banking services through its PostShops (post offices).Kiwibank is owned by the New Zealand government and the company's Board of Directors was chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger from 2001–2010. The current Chairman of the Board of Directors is Rob Morrison.[1]

History

Earlier state-owned banks

Kiwibank is similar in many respects to an earlier post office-based bank owned by the New Zealand government. The New Zealand Post Office Bank was established in 1867. In 1987, the bank was corporatised and separated from New Zealand Post and Telecom New Zealand to form a stand-alone company – PostBank. Then in 1989 PostBank was sold by the government to ANZ.[2]

Establishment

The bank originated from Alliance Party policy during the 1999—2002 term of the Labour-led coalition government.

Jim Anderton revealed in his valedictory speech that after the issue had previously been discussed by cabinet for months, he had spent three hours trying to convince then Finance Minister Michael Cullen, Annette King told Cullen: "Michael, Jim's beaten back every argument against the bank we've ever put up. For God's sake, give him the bloody bank." Cullen replied: "Oh, all right then."[3][4]

Kiwibank launched in 2002 with 211 branches open nationwide by 30 June.

Continuing operation

By 2004, the number of Kiwibank branches had increased by 16 to 301.

In 2006, Kiwibank acquired a 51 per cent shareholding in New Zealand Home Loans.

In 2007, one analysis saw Kiwibank as having fostered a new level of competition in banking in New Zealand in terms of lower fees[5] and growth in service. As of 2007, Kiwibank had higher customer-satisfaction ratings than the four large Australian-owned trading-banks.[6]

New Zealand Post and Kiwibank shop at The Palms shopping centre in Shirley, Christchurch

As of 2008, Kiwibank reported that it was signing up around 300 new organisations and individuals per day (about 2100 per week) as customers.[7] Within the New Zealand financial institution context this is a significant figure: for the four "Big Five" retail banks (ANZ/National Bank (then ANZ National Bank), ASB, Westpac, BNZ), a typical year will result in a 0.2% increase or decrease in market share (deposit and lending values rather than number of customers).

In 2008 Kiwibank unveiled an advertising campaign, "Join The Movement", which parodied World War II resistance themes. Rival banks, most of them Australian-owned, denounced the advertisements as jingoistic.[8][9]

In 2009, Kiwi Group Holdings was established as a holding company which owned Kiwibank, Kiwi Insurance Ltd and 76 percent of New Zealand Home Loan Company.

In 2010, Paul Brock was appointed new Kiwibank Chief Executive after Sam Knowles resigned.

In 2012, Kiwibank Group purchased Gareth Morgan Investments.

According to Kiwibank's 2016 annual report continued growth saw the bank account for 12.0% of all New Zealand banking transactions while the bank is the main financial institution for 419,000 of its 1,020,000 account holders. The bank's net profit after taxation to the year ending 30 June was NZD$124 million, down 2.4% on the previous year. The bank's total assets however grew 5.5% to reach NZD$19.4 billion.[10]

Government divestment

In 2016, New Zealand Post announced an intention to sell 45 percent of Kiwibank to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (25 percent) and the Accident Compensation Corporation (20 percent).[11] On April 7, 2016 New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English announced that the Government has the intention to extract between $300–350 million (NZD) from Kiwibank in a 'special dividend' before the sale is finalised. The dividend is expected to be transacted the same time as the initial $495 million purchase price.[12]

Core business activities

ATM at The Hub shopping centre in Hornby, Christchurch

Kiwibank’s core business consists of personal banking, business banking, KiwiSaver and other wealth services.

Kiwibank Personal Banking

Personal banking products and services include home loans, personal loans, credit cards, everyday accounts, savings accounts, investment services and insurance products.[13]

Kiwibank Business Banking

Business Banking products and services include business lending, cheque accounts, credit cards, investments, merchant services, payment services and insurance.[14]

International Services

This includes online and manual international money transfers, foreign exchange and Foreign Currency Accounts and travellers' cheques.

Investments

Kiwibank invested NZ$8m into a 51% shareholding in New Zealand Home Loans,[15] a home loan lender specialising in debt reduction, in June 2006, and increased this in 2008 by a further 25% and took 100% in 2011. New Zealand Home Loans continues to grow offering an alternative to the traditional banking model and have a nationwide network of over 75 franchises.[16]

In 2012 Kiwibank purchased Gareth Morgan Investments (GMI) for an undisclosed sum.[17]

Awards

Kiwibank has won the Sunday Star Times/Cannex banking awards, in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 for offering the best value across their range of products.[18]

Other awards won by Kiwibank include:

Sponsorships

Kiwibank is the major sponsor of the New Zealander of the Year Awards[19] and was one of the major sponsors of the inaugural series of The Block NZ.

Controversy

In 2009 Kiwibank was highly criticized for using Australian call-centres in the middle of a strong advertising campaign persuading New Zealanders away from Australian banking corporations.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Our leaders". Kiwibank. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  2. ↑ "New Zealand Post and Kiwibank". Te Ara. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "Elliotts' suffering shook me - Power". The New Zealand Herald. 6 October 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  4. ↑ Watkins, Tracy (5 October 2011). "Bowing out with a final victorious quip". The Press. p. A9.
  5. ↑ Milner, Andrea (2008-05-11). "Experts question the high cost of banking". APN Holdings NZ. Retrieved 2014-03-14. The good news, says Godfrey Boyce, of KPMG Financial Services, is that in the past year major banks have adopted low-fee transaction accounts and low-interest rate credit cards to lure customers from competitors. [...] In part, he says this is a reaction to the fact previous banking "minnows", such as Kiwibank, TSB Bank and Rabobank, are now strong enough to be noticed by the major banks.
  6. ↑ Daniels, Chris (2007-04-08). "Bank on satisfaction". New Zealand Herald. APN Holdings NZ. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  7. ↑ Stock, Rob (c. 2008). "About Kiwibank". Kiwibank, external information. Kiwibank. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  8. ↑ Bennett, Adam (30 May 2008). "Stock takes: Changes rankle". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  9. ↑ Archived 19 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ "Kiwibank Media Briefing" (PDF). Kiwibank, external information. Kiwibank. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "NZ Post plans 45% sale of Kiwibank". National Business Review. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "Government will extract $300m - $350m dividend from Kiwibank". New Zealand Herald. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  13. ↑ "Personal Banking New Zealand". Kiwibank.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  14. ↑ "Business Banking New Zealand". Kiwibank.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  15. ↑ "New Zealand Home Loans - Helping Kiwis get Debt Free Faster". Nzhomeloans.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  16. ↑ "New Zealand Home Loans - Helping Kiwis get Debt Free Faster". Nzhomeloans.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  17. ↑ "Kiwibank consolidates KiwiSaver in Gareth Morgan brand | The National Business Review". Nbr.co.nz. 2012-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  18. ↑ Stock, Rob (2008-02-21). "Kiwibank posts a good result". Sunday Star-Times. Fairfax New Zealand. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  19. ↑ "New Zealander of the Year Awards". Nzawards.org.nz. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  20. ↑ "Kiwibank using Australian call-centre". New Zealand Herald. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
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