ANZ Bank New Zealand - History

History

  • 1840: Union Bank of Australia (UBA), a British bank with head office in London, agreed with the New Zealand Company to accompany settlers to New Zealand to provide them with banking services. UBA opened a branch in Petone, across the harbor from Wellington, where it transferred the branch shortly thereafter. Between 1840 and 1847 the Union Bank issued its own bank notes for circulation in New Zealand. These were initially issued under British law until 1844 when the New Zealand Governor signed an ordinance allowing the Bank to issue bank notes but required that these be a minimum of 1 pound and redeemable at demand for gold or silver.
  • 1848: The Governor withdrew Union Bank's right to issue bank notes and transferred these rights to the Colonial Bank of Issue (CBI). UBA notes in circulation were withdrawn and replaced with CBI bank notes. UBA objected, and every day it took whatever CBI notes it had received that day to the CBI and demanded redemption in gold; when UBA's customers wanted to withdraw money, the bank paid them in gold rather than CBI notes. This policy, when combined with previous confusion related to the issue of NZ Government debt, and support from the local commercial community, resulted in the CBI ultimately being shut down.
  • 1848: UBA opened a branch in Auckland, and a small number of branches elsewhere in the country followed.
  • 1856: UBC resumed issuing bank notes in New Zealand under an act of the New Zealand Parliament. (The Paper Currency Act 1856)
  • 1864: Bank of Australasia, another London-based bank, opened branches in Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch.
  • 1951: UBA and the Bank of Australasia merged to become the Australia and New Zealand Bank.
  • 1968: ANZ Bank joins Databank Systems Limited consortium to provide joint data processing services.
  • 1970: ANZ Bank merged with a third London-based bank, the English, Scottish and Australian Bank, to form ANZ Banking Group.
  • 1976: ANZ moved its corporate headquarters to Melbourne, Australia.
  • 1979: An Act of Parliament permitted ANZ to incorporate its branches in New Zealand as ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Ltd. ANZ sold 25% of the shares to the public.
  • 1983: ANZ opened its New Zealand head office in Wellington.
  • 1989: ANZ bought PostBank (the Post Office Savings Bank) from the New Zealand government in a privatization. Two years earlier the Government had separated the Post Office's banking business into a separate entity to prepare it for sale.
  • 2003: ANZ bought National Bank of New Zealand from Lloyds TSB.
  • 2008: ANZ announces around 400 jobs are to be moved to Bangalore, India.
  • 2009: ANZ Group CEO Mike Smith announces the Group's "super regional strategy" where the Bank aims to not be "Kiwi" or "Australian" but a global bank.
  • 2010: Acquires the remainder of ING NZ, forming the OnePath brand.
  • 2010: David Hisco replaces outgoing Jenny Fag as CEO ANZ New Zealand.
  • 2012: National Bank rebranded ANZ, over a period of two years.

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