One town did it their way

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

It might look like sleepy hollow, but Te Kauwhata in the northern Waikato went into overdrive when the last bank in town said it was pulling out.

Once served by three banks, the town of about 900, including a large retired population with sizeable nest eggs, flirted with starting a community bank based on Australia's successful Bendigo Bank model.

But the one thing they lacked was time, whether for Bendigo to extend its reach across the Tasman or for the Government to open a Kiwi Bank, so they jumped at an offer by Credit Union Waikato to open a branch.

A day after WestpacTrust vacated the town's old post office late last year, the credit union was in business there, even paying a modest commission to the community committee that owns the building.

The branch already has 515 members with deposits of $1.7 million, well above the credit union's break-even mark, leaving committee chairman Colin Pepler puzzling over how the bank could have deemed the town unprofitable.

Although many credit unions now give members access to accounts through Eftpos and ATM machines, he wants their national association to push for a full banking licence to extend services to cheques and credit cards.

The association, though guarded about any designs in that direction, is promoting itself as the natural vehicle for a Kiwi Bank, even though NZ Post is being groomed for that role.

Association chief Doug McLaren instances Te Kauwhata as a perfect example of self-help banking, as well as Murupara in the Bay of Plenty and Lawrence in Otago, where credit unions have also filled gaps left by banks.

The banks - a Herald series

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