Type State-owned enterprise Customer service 00 64 4-473 1133 Founded May 2001 Number of employees 2,375 | Website www.kiwibank.co.nz CEO Paul Brock (Sep 2010–) Headquarters Wellington | |
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Key people Paul Brock (Chief Executive)
Rob Morrison (Chairman of Board of Directors) Products Banking and financial services Parent organizations New Zealand Post, Kiwi Group Holdings Limited Subsidiaries Kiwi Insurance Limited Profiles | ||
Get up and running with 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.
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Indepen dance kiwibank staff
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.
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."
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 and growth in service. As of 2007, Kiwibank had higher customer-satisfaction ratings than the four large Australian-owned trading-banks.
As of 2008, Kiwibank reported that it was signing up around 300 new organisations and individuals per day (about 2100 per week) as customers. 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.
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.
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). 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.
Core business activities
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.
Kiwibank Business Banking
Business Banking products and services include business lending, cheque accounts, credit cards, investments, merchant services, payment services and insurance.
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, 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.
In 2012 Kiwibank purchased Gareth Morgan Investments (GMI) for an undisclosed sum.
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.
Other awards won by Kiwibank include:
Sponsorships
Kiwibank is the major sponsor of the New Zealander of the Year Awards 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.