Superbank aims to make a difference

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The head of a new supermarket banking venture wants to change the face of retail banking in New Zealand.

The joint venture of supermarket group Foodstuffs and Australia's St George Bank will be called Superbank.

A banking academic says he has no idea what Superbank's impact will be because it has yet to list its products.

The joint venture, announced in November, had an in-house name, "Pam's Bank", until this week.

The logo incorporates the dragon of St George Bank, Australia's fifth largest bank.

Superbank chief operating officer James Munro said the development of the brand had been carefully thought through to reflect the characteristics of the new bank.

"We are setting out to change the face of retail banking, offering a genuine alternative to traditional banks," he said.

The bank will be launched through Pak'N Save, New World, Write Price and Four Square stores before the end of March.

Munro refused to identify Superbank's first product, but said every bank would be its competitor.

He also refused to say what customer targets the bank had, but said they were "conservative". "I think the fact that the five major banks between them made $2.5 billion profit in the last financial year, at higher than average international rates of return, shows there's room for this venture in the market."

David Tripe, senior lecturer in banking studies at Massey University, said it was hard to say who Superbank was aiming at because no product details were known.

But he suspected its target would be a higher socio-economic group than that of Kiwibank.

Tripe said supermarket banking ventures in Britain had really taken off after offering a basic savings account because existing banks had offered appalling returns.

Munro said the name was selected six months ago, and Reserve Bank registration as a bank was pending.

Foodstuffs has 478 retail outlets and more than 3.2 million people in its stores each week.