By Gareth Vaughan
ANZ's chief executive officer wants the country's biggest bank to lift its profile and believes its contribution to the New Zealand economy is "under estimated."
David Hisco, an Australian who took the reins at ANZ New Zealand in September and relocated from Melbourne to Auckland, also says he wants ANZ to be New Zealand's best bank.
Asked at a media briefing by interest.co.nz if he thought ANZ was already, or wasn't, the country's best bank Hisco said it was a big bank.
"Obviously we’re the biggest bank. I think there’s a lot more we can do to be the best bank," said Hisco. "The research shows that we need to improve our connectedness with New Zealand."
"We’re one of the biggest employers in New Zealand, we’re the biggest company in New Zealand, we have a massive amount of money invested in New Zealand," Hisco added.
"Yet people don’t seem to recognize that. I don’t think they appreciate what our contribution to New Zealand is."
ANZ will be the official bank of next year's Rugby World Cup and Hisco said he hoped this would help the bank get its message across a bit better.
"We sponsor a lot of charities, we do a lot of things yet still there are a lot of people that bank National (Bank) and don’t even know that it’s owned by ANZ," Hisco added.
"So we could do a lot more to make people realise that actually we’re making a pretty good contribution to the economy."
He noted ANZ had been the first bank to respond to the Pike River coal mine tragedy on Wednesday night, opening an account at both ANZ and National Bank branches nationwide to take donations for the families of the 29 miners believed to have died in the Pike River mine. ANZ itself donated NZ$100,000.
Hisco said the Pike River tragedy was awful.
"Our people feel terrible about it. Eleven of those people down there are our customers," he said.
"We don’t look for thanks for doing this sort of stuff, we just think it’s the right thing to do when you’re big in the community."
As of September 30, ANZ had 9,412 staff. In the year to September ANZ made a NZ$867 million profit, paying NZ$338 million of tax in the year. As of September 30, it had net loans of NZ$96 billion and customer deposits of NZ$59.7 billion.
Hisco's comments come with ANZ New Zealand's parent under fire in Australia, along with the other big three Australian banks, as politicians discuss ways to increase competition in the banking market.
And they come 11 months after the ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac agreed to settle a long running tax dispute with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) over structured finance transactions, agreeing to pay NZ$2.2 billion, or 80% of what IRD was seeking plus interest.
Meanwhile, Hisco also expressed scepticism about customer satisfaction surveys which consistently rate the ANZ brand less popular with customers' than its major rivals. The latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Banking Customer Satisfaction Survey, for example, placed ANZ last of the seven banks surveyed (with the National Bank fourth) in terms of the percentage of customers' very or fairly satisfied.
* This article was first published in our email for paid subscribers earlier today. See here for more details and to subscribe.
14 Comments
I once had an Affaire/Mortgage with the ANZ.... When their Cost of Capital moved up, I always found they were the first to raise interest rates, and when it fell, they were the last to move their lending rates down with the market.
It was kind ‘a like having an affaire with Jake Heke... forever being slapped around...abused!
Once you have escaped an abusive relationship, if you are lucky, or determined enough to.... you never go back.
ANZ/National... may put another Tattoo on their face... but they are still the same Monkey... and only a Govt Gaurantee could put that Monkey on my back again!
"...its contribution to the New Zealand economy is "under estimated."....no Mr Hisco....we know for sure the bank played a major role in pumping credit into the housing ponzi scheme, determined to profit from farming the families for more.....and we know the bank like all the other parasitic shites in main street Noddy don't give a rat's arse about people being booted from their homes when they are not able to feed the bank.....we know Mr Hisco.
MikeM, I bank with TSB...and have done for about 15 years now...
1- They have the most prudent Capital adequacy Ratio of all NZ registered Banks.
2- Their Profits stay in NZ... and that's important!
3- I've always found them to be Friendly and Proffesional...It's no acccident that they always top the Customer Satisfaction Survey's http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2010/1189/
I'd recommend them.
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It seems that ANZ went in search of a human face, happened upon Frankenstein, and couldn't tell the difference. Not surprising really. Weren't they the bank who couldn't spot the risk differential between term deposits and investing in ING? (I guess David Hisco does have a point – that particular contribution to the New Zealand economy was somewhat “under-appreciated”.)
David Hisco's boast that ANZ was the first bank to respond to the Pike River coal mine tragedy is inappropriate and unseemly. It gives the impression that that tragedy was to the bank nothing more than a great PR opportunity upon which to swoop, vulture-like. I'm sure that for individuals working in the bank that was not the case, but David Hisco has somehow managed, by his comments, to make ANZ look like a harrier hawk feasting on road-kill. And if ANZ is truly “not looking for thanks for doing this sort of stuff”, then why mention it?
As for his statement about eleven of the miners being ANZ customers, that has to be the weirdest thing I've heard for a long time. Just who sat down and checked that out? And why? What significance could that little factoid have to anyone, other than a bank looking for a marketing opportunity?
Judging by the statements of its New Zealand CEO, ANZ doesn't just need to improve its connectedness with New Zealand, it needs to improve its connectedness with humankind.
Suggest that you upgrade your browser... that would be the first thing to check... if you are running an old version (i.e. more than 12 months old) then you will likely get weird stuff...
Else maybe your plug-ins may need an upgrade....
If you are running Windoze... then go to update.microsoft.com and go from there...
Thanks Horace the Grump. I actually use Linux and Firefox, so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem. I think it might have something to do with when I copy and paste rather than type directly into the comments field. However, I guess other people do the copy and paste thing sometimes too and don't seem to have that problem. Maybe it's something to do with OpenOffice.
These comments would be unbelievable if they were coming from almost any other person in the business community.. BUT this guy's a banker and it just confirms the insulated, protected, out-of-touch environment many individuals who work in this sector live in. Perception is reality !! You can do all the frilly stuff(PR is what it is) in the community you like, but if you don't or aren't seen to be performing in the fundamentals of your business then you'll be judged accordingly. These guys, including the better ones, still 'hand out the umbrella on fine days to wrench it back when it rains' (well put by another commentator). Any wonder the secondary debt market was over developed in this country.
ANZ and National are to become one brand next year.
The Black Horse goes and it becomes ANZ.
As a longstanding National customer,I will be off to a NZ owned bank.
And I will not be alone.
The ING episode was a continuation of their poor reputation.
Where I live,ANZ has the old POSB clients.
That is about it.
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