Banks pay huge dividends despite recession

The bank workers' union Finsec is calling on the Government to toughen up on Australian-owned banks which paid huge dividends to their parent companies last year.

In the past financial year, the profits of ANZ, Westpac, BNZ and ASB amounted to a combined $790 million but they paid out more than $1.7 billion in dividends, or 222.8 per cent of their profits, Finsec said.

"In a year in which bank staff were made redundant, jobs were sent offshore, mortgagee sales rose, some staff had their wages frozen, branches were closed and all the banks received taxpayer support through the Government guarantee schemes, it is totally galling to see this huge amount of money being shipped back to shareholders," said union spokesman Andrew Campbell.

"It is clear in our view that the banks have done much to protect their shareholders from the recession while doing nowhere near enough to assist getting the New Zealand economy back into growth by doing such things as keeping people in jobs and paying wage increases to all staff.

"The Government needs to toughen its regulation of the banks to include social responsibility and national interest measures to stop this immoral preference towards overseas shareholders over the local economy and staff," Mr Campbell said.

"Internationally, regulators are getting tougher on bad banking practices.

"It is unthinkable for our Government to do nothing while these profitable companies continue to behave with such disregard for the local economy."

- NZPA