National Bank customers prey for other banks

John Bolton, of Squirrel, says yesterday’s announcement that ANZ and National Bank are to merge under the ANZ brand would lead to a lot of promotional activity, probably beginning next month.

He said the move made sense and brokers already dealt with both banks as one. “From a broker perspective there is no difference between the brands. It’s more customer perception.”

Choice of bank wasn’t overly important to clients, he said, as long as they got a good deal and service. “In terms of choice, we still deal with a number of lenders.”

PAA chief executive Edward Richards said it was a positive thing for brokers because there would be less brand confusion in the marketplace.

ANZ spokesman Steffan Herrick said it was just a market perception that ANZ had been more aggressive in pursuing home loan business.

ANZ Bank accounted for $1.09 billion of the June quarter's growth, a record for any New Zealand bank.

Herrick said that for the past 12 months, all ANZ home loan offers had been available through National Bank and the carded rates were the same.

But David Tripe, of Massey University, said rival banks could take the opportunity to capitalise on the disruption in the market caused by National Bank customers finding themselves shunted to ANZ.

It had been suggested that up to 50% of National Bank’s customers might not want to switch to ANZ but Tripe said that was an exaggeration. “I would expect them to lose a few but 50% is way over the top.”

ANZ said brokers’ relationships with business development managers, business banking and commercial managers would stay the same, assessment team members would remain in their jobs, pending National Bank approvals would be honoured, National Bank applications could be sent through during the transition process and brokers would continue to be paid trail commissions for National Bank loans.

Broker commission rates would stay the same and home loan products and fees for National Bank customers would not change.
Tripe said he doubted brokers would have played ANZ off against National Bank anyway, over the past decade so it would not make a huge difference to them.

Comments from our readers

On 27 September 2012 at 2:22 pm Jeff Royle said:

The way ANZ treated Customers a year ago over floating rate mortgages indicate an arrogance not shown by other Banks.

On 27 September 2012 at 3:49 pm Sam said:

Well, recently I have joined the National Bank and since then I have received a good service. However ANZ was the first bank I did banking with, about 15 years ago when I moved to New Zealand. I was with ANZ for seven years and when I asked them for a home loan I was turned down. I managed to convince another bank to get a home loan. During the next 8 years not only I have paid half of my mortgage but also bought an another property.
The way I was treated by ANZ, I do not want to go back to them.
There are so many options available in New Zealand itself.

On 28 September 2012 at 9:36 am Lea said:

I've been a National Bank customer for ever. I don't like the ANZ brand, it's cheap. As one astute customer put it, "it's like merging Kirkcaldie and Stains with The Warehouse" and that is how I feel about it!

On 28 September 2012 at 10:17 am Jude said:

If you want to move to a bank with the best customer focus, try The Co-Operative Bank (formerly PSIS). Until I started working for a big bank and got lured away by the staff deals, there was not a bank that could take us away from them. There's still nobody that can touch them for service and attitude. They might be small but we've loved them, ever since we moved everything away from National Bank due to their dreadful attitude towards us when we sought a consolidation loan.

On 28 September 2012 at 12:32 pm Mark said:

All this hoo-haa over brand differences is ridiculous!!! At the end of the day one banks money is the same colour as anothers. What it comes down to is the people; if you like the person you deal with great & if you don't there are plenty of other people WITHIN that bank to try out but you get no guarantees that whomever looks after you will be better or worse than the previous...

On 1 October 2012 at 9:47 am Personal View said:

Don't forget that ANZ has owned and managed the National Bank for a number of years now. Added to this is that fact that the rights to use the Horse and green colour was purchased for a set period which expires this year, so it was a re-brand for the National in any case. Why not simply go with the parent bank (ANZ) brand instead of spending a bucket of money doing a National Bank re-brand?

On 3 October 2012 at 3:04 pm Checker said:

It's been no secret that ANZ and National Bank were "one" - so what's the big deal? ANZ had the option either to re-brand National or merge it into a single banking operation. They chose the latter.

Either option carries a cost - yes some National Customers will chose to go elsewhere, but a re-branding could well have the same outcome anyway.

National Bank customers prey for other banks

New Zealand’s home loan market will heat up over the next six months as ANZ takes an even more aggressive stance to acquire business, one mortgage broker says.

Thursday, September 27th 2012, 1:59PM 7 Comments

Comments from our readers

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