Merger aims to build a bank for the heartland

Jeff Greenslade says the new bank will focus on the rural and SME sectors. Photo / Natalie Slade

Jeff Greenslade has just had one of the busiest years of his life - and it's not about to get any easier.

The chief executive of newly listed Building Society Holdings (BSH) has spent the past year bringing the company together through the combination of Pyne Gould Corporation's Marac Finance, Southern Cross Building Society and CBS Canterbury.

And now he is gearing up to apply for a banking licence from the Reserve Bank by mid-year.

"I think we have surprised a lot of people with how quickly we have been able to move."

The merger forming BSH had to receive approval through seven different votes, as well as the court and Treasury, to ensure it could still qualify for the Government's deposit guarantee scheme.

Greenslade said one of the key milestones had been getting an investment grade credit rating, which is vital for the application to become a bank but which he said had also helped to underpin funding. That rating had come through earlier than expected.

At the end of January the company had $1.559 million in retail deposits, $104 million in listed bonds, a $275 million securitisation programme and $200 million in undrawn bank facilities.

Greenslade said retail reinvestment rates had remained strong at about 80 per cent while the company had also attracted non-guaranteed deposits.

Now the focus was on getting itself to look like a bank.

His new management team is nearly in place. "All the team have been hand-picked for the purposes of becoming a bank."

Greenslade said merging the three businesses had been easy compared with other integrations he has done - about three or four during his career.

"All three organisations came into this with a willingness to make this happen. We are very complementary in terms of geography."

And because the company is in expansion mode there are no tough decisions to make about branch closures. Instead BSH wants to grow from the 20 branches and 38 agencies it now has.

Greenslade is promising a different banking offering from the usual. He says most of the smaller New Zealand-owned banks focus on residential mortgages while the big Australian owned banks offer everything.

BSH will focus on supplying banking to New Zealand's heartland - small-to-medium businesses, farmers and the families behind them. That
will include business loans and residential mortgages.

"We won't be all things to everyone nor will we be heavily into residential mortgages."

But he said the small-and-medium-business and rural sectors were the backbone of New Zealand. "That's half of GDP - it's not a bad place to be."

Greenslade said BSH's big interest in financing the rural sector was in providing seasonal capital - the financing of livestock - which is backed by an asset and suited the company's risk profile. "It's the cash-generative part of the business."

The focus on SMEs will also mean it captures urban borrowers. "Yes we want to be involved in Auckland - it's currently our biggest market."

The company has been looking at other banks to model itself on and has zeroed in on an American bank in Tennessee.

"It's a start-up bank targeting the same sort of people."

On the lending front, Greenslade said there was work to do to expand capabilities. "We want to have people available for clients when they need them and then there is the technology."

But don't expect BSH to be setting up call centres any time soon.

Greenslade is keen to go back to the bank manager model where the local manager can make decisions without having to defer to head office.

Once BSH has applied for the banking licence Greenslade says it will be up to the Reserve Bank how long the licensing process takes.

First on the agenda for now is an official name.

"Branding is the next cab off the rank. It's something we want to resolve as soon as we can."

But don't expect to see big advertisements on television or flash offices. "We are not going to be the flashiest."