Westpac pushing to look after migrants' dollars

By PAULA OLIVER

Competition for the migrant dollar is heating up among Auckland's banks.

Westpac announced last week that it was targeting migrants as part of its strategy to win a bigger share of the Auckland banking market.

The bank has recruited a former ASB Bank migrant specialist, Yen Yap, and Westpac chief executive Ann Sherry is now travelling through Singapore and Hong Kong to talk to potential migrants.

Westpac declared war on other banks in the Auckland region late last year, and its drive for new customers includes opening a new branch on Dominion Rd - its first new branch since it merged with Trust Bank in 1996.

KPMG chairman of banking Andrew Dinsdale said that Westpac's push for migrant customers was not surprising as the market was lucrative.

He said other banks had been pushing the area for six or more years.

Westpac's consumer general manager Ken Hodgson said that his bank had not done as well as it could have in migrant banking.

He estimated that ASB Bank held 50 per cent of the migrant market, National Bank about 20 per cent, and the rest lagged behind.

"So clearly there's room for us."

Most of the 98,000 people who came to New Zealand as permanent or long-term arrivals last year came from Asia.

Most settled in Auckland, and population projections show that Asians are likely to make up 13 per cent of the country's population by 2021.

Hodgson said that although Asians were targets for Westpac's banking push, they were far from the only potential customers.

"Migrant banking picks up the big South African intake as well, and other cultures. We have to make sure we understand their differences and are responsive to them."

Banks have been catering for migrants for years by hiring tellers who are multi-lingual and making sure that new offices are aligned with Asian feng shui beliefs.

Hodgson said Westpac would pull together its banker network of Indian, Asian, Korean, South African, and other nationalities, to end up with a big team.

He said migrants often opened small businesses and that too was a lucrative banking business.

"If they do leave any money at home it can't be much, because they do bring a lot of wealth with them - and generally speaking they certainly generate a lot of wealth when they arrive."