The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) says the big Australian-owned banks that dominate NZ’s economy continue to enjoy a ‘heads we win, tails you lose’ relationship with Kiwi consumers.

Figures for the 2024 fiscal year show that bank profits have reached an all-time high.

At the same time, despite lower interest rates, more and more customers of the big four Australian banks (BNZ, ANZ, ASB and Westpac) are overdue in their mortgage repayments.

CAFCA Secretary Murray Horton says foreign banks continue to make obscene profits in New Zealand.

RNZ reports the banking sector’s profits rose to the record level of $7.22 billion in 2024, up around $18 million from 2023.

“Meanwhile, the big Australian banks say their overdue home loans rose from $4.4 billion to $4.9 billion in the first half of 2025, Horton says".

“While this is a small percentage of these banks’ total assets, it means a growing number of households with mortgages are in serious trouble and more than 90 days behind in their payments".

“Banks are like casinos – they never lose. As ANZ Chief Executive, Antonia Watson said in a Stuff interview, banks are not like retailers. When the economy is bad their revenues do not fall. Interest payments continue regardless.”

One reason bank profits are so high is that they hold a huge amount of their customers’ money in interest-free accounts.

It is estimated that the banks hold $58 billion in on-call, transaction accounts that pay no interest to the consumer. Having access to their customers’ deposits for free is a big reason the banks generate their own excess profits.

“Labour has proposed a minimum 1% interest rate on all bank accounts but naturally the banks reject this. In Australia banks are required to tell customers with large amounts in zero-interest accounts when they would be better off transferring their money to other accounts.”

Horton says, even when the courts put pressure on banks, their mates in this Government put their thumb on the scales in their favour.

“The Coalition Government has introduced a bill that will weaken consumer protection by reducing the awards that suits against the banks can receive".

“On top of that, the Government wants to make the law retroactive. This could affect the outcome of a class action suit that Kiwi borrowers have filed against the ANZ and ASB for charging excessive fees and interest.

“John Key’s Government brought in the current rules, which require the banks repay all of the illegal interest and fees they have charged. To change this retrospectively and undermine this outcome of this class action suit is moving the goal posts and against natural justice.”

National is not alone in mollycoddling the banks, Horton says. When they were in power, Labour stonewalled calls to hold a full scale inquiry into the banking sector.

They finally did announce a Commerce Commission study into competition in the banking sector in June 2023, but it was too little, too late. It was just a few months before the October election that they knew they were going to lose.

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