14 July 2002

Jim Anderton, MP and candidate for Wigram

Jim Anderton today said that moves by ANZ to franchise their branches shows that the arrival of Kiwibank is changing the way banks are operating in New Zealand.

“NZ Post has 170 franchisees, many of which will become Kiwibanks, and I can see ANZ wants to try and copy this successful model.

“I suspect overseas owned banks are rattled by the success of Kiwibank and are wanting to protect their customer bases.

“Since the Kiwibank has opened 200 branches (with a further 100 to open by the end of this year) overseas owned banks have been forced to respond to the new competition. This has included lower interest rates, lower fees and better service.

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