By Gareth Vaughan
Ten years from now Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich wants New Zealanders to be thinking about their big five, rather than big four, banks, with Kiwibank in there mixing it with the four Aussie owned banks and not the smallest among them.
In the latest episode of interest.co.nz's Of Interest podcast, Jurkovich speaks about where the now 21 year-old Kiwibank has come from, where it's at, and where it's heading. This comes with the bank having just posted a 34% increase in annual profit to a record high of $175 million.
"I'd certainly like New Zealand to be thinking about its big five banks. And I guess my stretch goal is that we're not the fifth biggest, we're the third or the fourth. And I don't think there's any reason we can't be that. Whether I'm here running it or not, I hope I've played my part in getting it there. I'd like people to look back and go 'remember when it was only making $175 million? Remember when it only had a million customers? And look at it now'," he says.
Speaking about the Commerce Commission's market study into personal banking competition, Jurkovich says if they want a bigger Kiwibank and more bank profit staying in NZ, New Zealanders need to exercise their choice.
"Because leaving it up to the Government, and we have lots of people in New Zealand who complain that the Government does too much, I don't think is going to change anything. We have to be good enough to earn your business, and you have to be fired up enough to make a move. And if we can get those two things together, then we'll have a way more competitive market place."
Jurkovich also reveals he has been meeting weekly with the CEOs of the big four banks - ANZ NZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac NZ - for the past four weeks to discuss mounting concerns about scams and frauds being committed against their customers. The New Zealand Banking Association's CEO Roger Beaumont has facilitated these meetings.
"If I think about the things I really worry about, scams and fraud are definitely one of them. Our own fraud rates are growing at north of 100%," says Jurkovich. "This needs to be a joint arms race otherwise we've got no chance."
In the podcast he also talks about tough times in the housing market as customers' mortgage payments jump, the potential for a partial government sell-down of Kiwibank via a share market listing should the Government change in October's election, Kiwibank's plans to grow and build capital and what a requirement to pay a chunky dividend would mean for these, how the bank has moved on from an expensive, failed core banking system upgrade just before he joined as CEO five years ago, why Kiwibank won't be entering the institutional or rural banking markets anytime soon, and the bank's role in a decarbonising economy.
"I really feel like a 21 year-old. We're just getting started," Jurkovich says.
*You can find all episodes of the Of Interest podcast here.
26 Comments
Note - Customer feedback not a dig. I have tried twice in the last 9 years to move back to Kiwibank after having to move away from Kiwibank to an Aussie bank when purchasing a building some years earlier.
Each time I could not get it across the line because the commercial banking side of Kiwibank was miles off par in comparison to the Aussie bank.
And I'm not talking interest rates, I'm talking customer service, creating solutions to problems, "sealing the deal" through banking expertise and experience. Unfortunately and I say unfortunately because I'd love to use them, Kiwibank was miles off to the extent that on the last occasion, about 10 months ago, by the time they replied to my application I had done the deal with an Aussie bank as time was a consideration (but not overly so, as to being unrealistic).
If I could move all my business and asset finance to Kiwibank I would, I would also encourage all my employees to use them as well. I would encourage Kiwibank to create employer employee synergy type products.
I'm sure a lot of other Kiwi business people would too.
However until Kiwibanks commercial expertise is on par with what is demonstrated by some of the Aussie banks I fear this wont be happening.
Im not sure of the complexity of your business and dealings. My experience would be exactly the opposite of yours. ANZ were not interested in helping me grow at all, caveat here is I dont own property, but we did have over 1m in unencumbered stock and very good accounts. ANZ were not interested at all, absolutely hopeless to deal with.
Kiwibank came to the party and we have never looked back. We have a great bus manager who is beyond helpful. I moved all my personal stuff there as well. The only complaint I have is a lack of online forex trading. Since moving we have doubled in size - people and sales -, we couldnt have done that without the funding from Kiwibank.
Similar feedback here... WAS a loyal customer and had 2 mortgages with them in 2018 and tried to reshuffle to buy a family home in another location with a new job and wife self employed after maternity leave. Had tried and tried and even got a Kiwibank mortgage manager to come out to meet us in person. Had some bad experiences with the customer service which I think was in the Hawkes Bay?? at that time. Don't go off and buy a new ute she said you still have a small mortgage with us! Within a few days A** offered up about 3-4 times what we wanted to borrow. Sensible family home purchased and havn't looked back. I still would like to support NZ banks but man it's been 5 years and I havn't forgotten. Customer experience way off the mark with a lot of catching up to do.
Yep I agree too. I moved a bunch of accounts to Kiwibank from bnz and have found them excellent. No stupid charges on accounts, real people to deal with, app is decent… I’ll keep my business acc with bnz for now just for continuity but that will be it . Their savings rates are only a touch behind bnz and have more options
We have been with kiwibank from the beginning as it seemed crazy to send banking profits offshore. However we haven't appreciated them taking a woke position on things that just have nothing to do with banking, so opened an account with another NZ bank. I expect within 12 months we won't be using kiwibank at all.
Useless bank. Their online banking has been down countless times in the last year. Opening hours slashed. Not business friendly. Hopeless to bank cash with. Try to send us outside to atm to deposit thousands in cash. Won't let us use card to deposit cash unless it is the employees name on card. We cant send our part time worker to deposit banking. Been with them since day 1, have a stupid certificate from Boldger to prove it. Counts for nothing.
Interesting to read the comments. I need to move from HSBC and am considering kiwibank. My banking is fairly simple, and I'm a long time customer of one of the big 4 but would like to support nz. Don't like that their foreign currency accounts charge for incoming amounts, but otherwise their fees seem reasonable.
I needed a small loan to finish a build. I'm a customer of a Aussie bank. I thought I'd contact Kiwibank about making the switch. I got the complete run around. Had to chase up the application heaps. Wouldn't hear back. Kind of got the impression they wanted my bank to approve the loan first then they'd do the switch. My bank approved the loan and I'm just not interested in switching anymore.
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