TSB head says Auckland will get more branches

Kevin Murphy started at the TSB Bank as a teller 31 years ago. Photo / Sarah Ivey

When Kevin Murphy started working as a teller for TSB Bank at 19 he had no idea he would become managing director.

But 31 years later the down-to-earth Murphy is sitting in the hot seat having just reported a 19.3 per cent growth in the company's annual net profit.

"It is always a goal to progress in an organisation. It's always in the back of your mind - but it's a huge leap of faith to go from teller to MD."

Murphy, who took over the job of managing director in January, became a teller after dropping out of a finance degree because, he says, "it wasn't working for me".

But that didn't stop him going back to the books. Murphy says the bank supported him in training to be an accountant and his progress through the ranks was rapid.

He moved into the accounting department and then branched into IT before setting his course for the top.

Murphy spent seven years as deputy managing director, training under his former boss, and says he never considered joining one of the bigger Australian-owned banks.

"Once you have been in an organisation for a period of time and you experience the culture and the opportunities - why would you want to look elsewhere?"

But it's not the numbers that do it for him.

"For me it is the people I work with and the customers. We have a very open-door policy both upwards and downwards and a lot of interaction with the customers. It's that opportunity to have an impact right from the ground level up."

Murphy says TSB's biggest challenge is increasing its 2.5 per cent market share.

He will not put a figure on how much growth the bank is targeting but says it will be gradual.

"We just want to have measured growth. We don't want to grow too fast and get the speed wobbles."

The bank already has customers from Kaitaia to Bluff and 50 per cent of its business is now outside Taranaki.

Eighteen months ago TSB opened a branch in Auckland's Queen St and more recently a branch in Takapuna on the North Shore. TSB acquired the Queen St site from rival bank HSBC after it pulled back from the retail market and did a deal to work with them on foreign exchange.

TSB has nine branches outside Taranaki and 15 in the region.

Murphy says the plan is to open more branches in Auckland, although he is coy about how many.

"Auckland is obviously a key market for us but we don't have a specific target."

One thing the bank certainly isn't interested in is listing on the stock exchange, or even a partial float.

"It's not a model we would consider to be appropriate for TSB Bank. We believe if you start selling shares ultimately you expose yourself to a 100 per cent sell-off. That's not something we are interested in."

TSB is owned by the TSB Community Trust which distributes its profits to various projects in the Taranaki region.

The bank is fully funded within this country and being New Zealand-owned is a big part of its attractiveness, Murphy says.

"That New Zealand ownership factor is quite important. We have also been around since 1840. People are encouraged by that degree of integrity."

Kevin Murphy

* TSB Bank managing director.

* Age: 50.

* Qualifications: chartered accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

* Work history: worked for the TSB Bank for the past 30 years.

* Family: married with three children.

* Interests: musical theatre - on the board of the New Plymouth Operatic Society, adviser to Musical Theatre New Zealand as well as chairman of the Musical Theatre Consortium.