ANZ Bank cleared to acquire National Bank

ANZ Bank cleared to acquire National Bank

The Commerce Commission has cleared ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Limited (ANZ) to acquire NBNZ Holdings Limited, the New Zealand holding company of The National Bank of New Zealand Limited and its controlled subsidiaries (National) from Lloyds TSB Bank plc.

“The Commission is satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not have, nor would be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in the relevant markets due to the competition provided by the other major banks,” said Geoff Thorn, Acting General Manager of the Commission.

A public version of the Commission’s decision will be available in the next 10 working days.

Background The immediate parent company of ANZ is ANZ Holdings (New Zealand) Limited, which is wholly owned by ANZ Funds Pty Limited. ANZ has a number of subsidiaries in New Zealand including UDC Finance Limited, which specialises in asset financing. ANZ also has interests in EFTPOS New Zealand Limited, Visa New Zealand Limited and Interchange & Settlement Limited.

National is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Bank plc. National also holds interests in VNZL and ISL, as well as in Electronic Transaction Services Limited, which is an alternative system for the interchange and clearance of EFTPOS and credit card transactions.

Both ANZ and National provide financial products and services in New Zealand. Their key business areas are personal banking, consumer finance, business banking, corporate banking and institutional banking.

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