Whose bank?

My Bank is ASB Bank's, not New Zealand Post's.

Thursday, February 22nd 2001, 12:03AM

My Bank is ASB Bank's, not New Zealand Post's.

New Zealand Post's leaked business plan calls the People's Bank My Bank, and it says it intends to offer Internet banking along with other personal banking services.

But a search of the domain name registry in New Zealand shows that ASB Bank secured the www.mybank.co.nz domain name back in November 1999 - so on the web it's Their Bank, not NZ Post's.

NZ Post says the People's Bank will offer a range of personal banking services including savings accounts, eftpos card, cheque books, credit cards and mortgages. Also, it will be providing telephone and Internet banking and access to automatic teller machines.

It hasn't said anything about offering investment products through its network. However, Tower Corporation chief executive James Boonzaier confirmed at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday that its alliance with NZ Post, which allows it to offer managed funds through the Post Shop network, is still alive.

Tower announced the deal last year and is proposing to sell a single balanced fund over the counter at NZ Post.

The product would be an actively managed balanced fund done in conjunction with five fund managers. The asset allocation split would be 55:45 growth versus income.

Tower sought partnerships with five fund managers for the project last year at a price of $150,000 each, but it's unknown how many firms have signed up to the deal.

Tower pitched the proposal to managers on the basis that NZ Post had 322 Post Shops nationwide and 750,000 customers per week in its retail network, who conducted a total of 50,000 financial transactions a day.

NZ Post is talking of signing up two customers per week in each branch over three years to hit its target of getting 100,000 bank customers in three years.

Tower's (conservative) projection is that if 75% of Post Shops make one sale each a week it could have between $65 million and $100 million in funds under management in the first year.

That would make the fund bigger than the 23rd ranked fund manager in New Zealand.

What do you think of the People's Bank idea? Is it a goer or is it a dog? Have Your Say in in the Online Forums section

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