Photo: RNZ
A public campaign is calling for action on excessive profits by New Zealand’s four largest retail banks: ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac.
First Union and community advocacy group ActionStation have launched the campaign to end what they describe as “Bankflation”.
A new report shows the net interest margins of those banks, which is the difference between their lending and borrowing rates, have risen to a 17-year high, and that the cumulative “Big Four” bank profits have increased 80 percent in the last decade.
This morning, a group of First Union members marched from Queen Street to Takutai Square to mark the launch of the ‘Stop Bankflation’ campaign.
“While the Big Four have been making record profits, bank workers’ wages have stagnated and increasing interest rates have exacerbated the cost of living crisis,” First Union general secretary Dennis Maga said.
First Union delegate and Westpac employee Ace Sieed said he believed people’s savings were evaporating during a cost of living crisis.
He said some colleagues at Westpac were having to cancel subscriptions and gym memberships, or move back in with parents to survive on wages that had not kept pace with growing bank profitability or the rising cost of living.
“People’s savings are running out faster than their patience to weather this storm,” he said.
Meanwhile, First Union spokesperson Edward Miller told Midday Report that New Zealand bank profits were “disproportionately high” compared to similar countries.
He said data from the Commerce Commission’s preliminary report into the banking industry showed that key profitability measures for New Zealand banks over the last decade – including return on assets, return on equity and net interest margins – were above the upper quartile of a sample of similar countries.
“If we’re looking at bank’s balance sheets – the amount of assets that they hold – they’re about three to four times what they were 17 years ago… at a time when working people are doing it very tough.”
Miller said working families were seeing rising household costs, including interest rates going up on their mortgages, and businesses too were seeing their lending rates go up.
He added that for industries like farming and construction, the rising interest rates fed back into the rising cost of food and housing for New Zealanders.
