One brand but no difference says ANZ boss

Customers taking out home loans won’t notice any difference when ANZ and National Bank amalgamate into one brand, the companies’ chief executive says.

Wednesday, September 26th 2012, 5:59PM 9 Comments

by Susan Edmunds

It was announced this afternoon that after operating for 10 years as two, the brands will become one – ANZ New Zealand Ltd, starting in October. The process will take two years.

Staff were told at a series of meetings across the country.

ANZ National Bank CEO David Hisco said lending policies had been the same for the two banks for the last few years, “exactly the same scorecard is used across both brands”.

Mortgage adviser John Peterson agreed the criteria had been the same for some time and brokers had been told the change was imminent.

Hisco said: “We have been working hard to have both working at the same level so people don’t feel the change. There shouldn’t be too much to worry about except the staff will be wearing a different colour shirt.”

He said the two brands were responsible for one in three home loans issued to New Zealanders. ANZ Bank accounted for $1.09 billion of the June quarter's growth, a record for any New Zealand bank.

ANZ and National Bank have 300 branches across the country. Hisco said that would drop to 280 but there would be 15 new communities served.

Fulltime staff who lost their jobs would be given the opportunity to apply for others although 200 technology contractors would be out of work at the end of their contracts.

National Bank customers will not have to do anything in the transition, Hisco said.  ANZ would adopt National Bank's internet banking model and cards would remain the same until they expired.

The licence for National Bank's black horse branding was due to be handed back to Britain’s TSB in 2014.

« Is the home loan battle moving?HSBC kicks off Spring lending campaign »

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Comments from our readers

On 27 September 2012 at 8:07 am Terry Jones said:
Lloyds of London did NZ a huge disservice by selling the National Bank to ANZ. It should have been floated on the NZ stock exchange with some preference offered to it's clients. After all the disaffected National Bank clients have gone elsewhere, I doubt that the net benefit to ANZ will have made the deal worthwhile.
On 27 September 2012 at 8:24 am Don said:
A sad day.
I'm certainly not an ANZ fan and will be migrating, unless they seriously up their ante and change to being more customer focused.
Previous dealings with the ANZ Bank make them the last choice of banks in NZ for myself!
On 27 September 2012 at 8:27 am Ed said:
A truly baffling move by the ANZ marketing department! One does not have to do much googleing to find regular ANZ nominations and wins in "worst bank" and "worst company" competitions in the last 5 years in NZ and Australia. As a disgruntled ex ANZ and happy current National Bank customer I fear the worst.
On 27 September 2012 at 8:33 am Cynic said:
I am a staff member under the ANZ group, and I bank exclusively with National. This change is a good one, that will benefit the company as well as the bank's customers.

"Fulltime staff who lost their jobs would be given the opportunity to apply for others although 200 technology contractors would be out of work at the end of their contracts." Well yes, we have had a large group of technology contractors who have worked for 18 months on bringing both banks onto the same IT banking platform. Of course with that project winding up the contractors will naturally move on.

Full time staff will not be losing their roles. Don't make misleading statements that suggest permanent staff will be out of work, because that is 100% not true.

On 27 September 2012 at 9:26 am Amused said:
Christmas came early this year for mortgage brokers and solicitors! We are all going to be so busy now refinancing disgruntled National Bank home loan customers we won't have time for anything else. We all knew the horse was inevitably going to end up at the ANZ abattoir but if Hisco thinks this decision won’t now see a large chunk of National Bank clients jump ship he needs to think again. I can see the other banks now just salivating at opportunity to pounce!

Thanks ANZ, you really do live in our world.
On 27 September 2012 at 11:39 am Darcy Ungaro said:
As a mortgage adviser, I've seen many clients who used to be quite loyal to National Bank, refinance away from them in the last 3-4 yrs. It's far more than 'the colour of their shirt' that will change but I also feel that much of the change has already happened.

I fully agree with Amused - Merry Christmas to you to!

Anyone keen to switch banks - give me a call!
On 29 September 2012 at 2:23 pm Denis said:
58 years of continual loyalty to men and women in the,Nat.,BK, many a time in distress. Reputations can't be bought - wolves in sheep's clothing fits my feeling on the merging.
Might just have to mount the horse and ride away to other experiences.
On 30 September 2012 at 9:59 am AndieM said:
I used to be a ANZ customer and left several years ago because I was fed up with their service, but I switched back to ANZ for the first time last year and their service (for the Manawatu area at least) is a huge improvement :) maybe it has something to do with them adopting the National Bank's standards.
On 2 October 2012 at 7:02 pm traveller said:
I've been an ANZ customer for the last 20+ years after my previous bank didn't offer the service I wanted. ANZ have always been a good bank as far as I am concerned; friendly, efficient, knowledgable staff and good systems.

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