Kiwibank
Encyclopedia
New Zealand Post
New Zealand Post, commonly referred by its acronym, NZPost is a State owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand.-History:...
. Through Kiwibank, New Zealand Post provides banking services through its PostShops (post offices) and joint venture Books & More and Papermate outlets throughout New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
The bank was initiated as part of Jim Anderton
Jim Anderton
James Patrick Anderton, usually known as Jim Anderton , is the leader of the Progressive Party, a New Zealand political party. He has served in Parliament since 1984. He served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and is currently also the sitting Father of the House, the longest...
's Alliance Party
Alliance (New Zealand political party)
The Alliance is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1991, and was influential in the 1990s, but has since declined and has no representation in parliament. It suffered a major setback after Jim Anderton, the party's leader, left the party in 2002, taking several of the...
policy in the 1999-2002 Labour
New Zealand Labour Party
The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
-Alliance
Alliance (New Zealand political party)
The Alliance is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1991, and was influential in the 1990s, but has since declined and has no representation in parliament. It suffered a major setback after Jim Anderton, the party's leader, left the party in 2002, taking several of the...
coalition government. Kiwibank is owned by the New Zealand government and the company's Board of Directors is chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger
Jim Bolger
James Brendan "Jim" Bolger, ONZ was the 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1990 to 1997. Bolger was elected on the promise of delivering a "Decent Society" following the previous Labour government's economic reforms, known as Rogernomics...
.
Jim Anderton revealed in his valedictory speech that after spending three hours trying to convince then Finance Minister Michael Cullen
Michael Cullen
Michael John Cullen was a New Zealand politician. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, also Minister of Finance, Minister of Tertiary Education, and Attorney-General. He was the deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1996 until November 2008, when he resigned following a defeat in...
, Annette King
Annette King
Annette Faye King is a New Zealand politician. She is the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the New Zealand. She was a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand.-Early life:...
told Cullen 'Michael, Jim's beaten back every argument against the bank we've ever put up, for God's sake give him the bloody bank.' Cullen replied 'Oh, all right then.'
Kiwibank invested NZ$8m into a majority shareholding in New Zealand Home Loans, a home loan lender specialising in debt reduction, in June 2006.
Kiwibank has won the first five Sunday Star Times/Cannex banking awards, in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 for offering the best value across their range of products. It has been seen by many to have brought a new level of competition in banking in New Zealand in terms of lower fees and growth in service. Kiwibank has higher customer satisfaction ratings than the four large Australian-owned trading banks.
Kiwibank's success is reflected primarily in its signup rate for new customers of over 300 new organisations and individuals per day (about 2100 per week). Within the New Zealand financial institution context this is a significant figure: for the 'Big Five' retail banks (ANZ/National Bank, ASB, Westpac, BNZ), a typical year will result in a 0.2% increase or decrease in market share (deposit + lending values rather than number of customers).
In 2008, Kiwibank unveiled an advertising campaign, "Join The Movement", which parodied World War II resistance
Resistance during World War II
Resistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
themes. The advertisements were denounced as jingoistic by rival banks, most of which are Australian owned.