BNZ opening new HQ in town

The BNZ branch in Marton may still be working out of temporary offices but from Monday week those headquarters will get markedly bigger.

The branch has been doing its business from a portacom building in front of the New World supermarket in Wellington Rd since August last year. It moved out of its previous 106-year-old building when a seismic engineering report failed to give it a pass for earthquake durability.

But Callum Gillespie, BNZ head of retail distribution, told the Chronicle yesterday that a bigger and more spacious portacom would be open for business in Marton on October 21.

"Over the last 12 months we've sought to meet the needs of our customers in the town, while continuing to search for a better, longer-term home," Mr Gillespie said. "We are still working to find a solution so, in the meantime, we have deployed a more innovative and service-driven portacom."

He said the portacom will provide customers with much more privacy, convenience and comfort than its predecessor. From October 21, the branch's "Portabank" will be open from 9.30am-11.30am and 12-4pm.

All three banks servicing the Rangitikei township - BNZ, ANZ Bank and Westpac - had issues with engineering reports on their premises.

But while the Westpac branch had relocated to permanent premises in January last year, both the BNZ and ANZ have been operating out of portacoms in front of the supermarket.

Mr Gillespie said the BNZ's previous headquarters, an aged brick building, needed significant remedial work to be brought up to building standards. He said that report indicated the building might not survive a significant earthquake "so we decided to move our people out and look for alternative options".