Tiny Kiwibank bites at the heels of ANZ, Westpac

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Kiwibank says it is gaining many customers from ANZ and Westpac, a claim rubbished by the big banks.

Although the Government-owned bank now has more than 70,000 customers, it is still a minnow compared with the big five banks.

But Kiwibank external relations manager Bruce Thompson said it was gaining customers at the expense of ANZ and Westpac.

"To have 70,000 customers, yes, we are clearly hitting all the banks but we have always believed ANZ and Westpac would be the target markets."

Both Australian-owned banks bought New Zealand banks with customer bases that Kiwibank considers a target. Westpac bought Trust Bank in 1996, and ANZ bought the Government-owned Post Bank in 1989.

Thompson said Kiwibank had early on identified ANZ and Westpac as targets - because ANZ had absorbed Post Bank and because customer satisfaction surveys had showed concern among customers of both banks.

He had no numbers to back up the assertion that Kiwibank was drawing a substantial number of its customers from ANZ and Westpac.

ANZ's Australian chief executive, John Macfarlane, last week admitted it had lost 30,000 retail customers in New Zealand from March last year to the end of September this year.

But ANZ spokesman Steve Fisher said that despite the comment from Macfarlane, ANZ had gained customers since Kiwibank opened in February.

He released figures revealing ANZ had 1,055,017 customers in February and now had 1,057,426. "To say we are bleeding customers is wrong. We lost a few in the second half of last year but we are picking up."

Fisher said it was not surprising Kiwibank was saying it was gaining from ANZ and Westpac, since they were the biggest banks, with combined market share of 44 per cent.

Westpac's acting New Zealand chief executive, Mike Pratt, also disputed Kiwibank's claims.

He cited mortgage customer numbers, which rose by 780 in the year ended September. In that year Westpac had also written $1 billion of mortgages for the first time.

Pratt said the capital position of Kiwibank was $68 million. By comparison, Westpac was ploughing $100 million of new investment into the New Zealand business.

"We have more in our ATMs on a long weekend in Westpac than Kiwibank's capital base."

Kiwibank has $120 million in mortgage business and $200 million in retail deposits. ANZ and Westpac each have more than a million customers and mortgage books and retail deposit bases worth billions of dollars.

Thompson said Kiwibank had never overstated its impact. The bank only had a 1 to 2 per cent market share, but was aiming at 6 to 8 per cent.

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/kiwibank