History
In 1861 the Bank of New South Wales opened seven branches in New Zealand.
In 1982, the New Zealand parliament passed special legislation to consolidate the New Zealand operations during the merger of the Bank of New South Wales and the Commercial Bank of Australia. The act of parliament was known as the Westpac Banking Corporation Act 1982.[4]
In 1996 the community trusts sold Trust Bank of New Zealand to Westpac for $1.2 billion. The two banks merged as WestpacTrust, although the word trust was phased out by 2002.[5]
In 2002, Westpac NZ appointed the first female CEO of any New Zealand bank, with the appointment of Ann Sherry.[6]
In 2004, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand required Westpac to split its New Zealand business and locally incorporate as part of its effort to make sure the bank in New Zealand operated for the benefit of New Zealand. Westpac resisted the move for over one year but eventually agreed to locally incorporate.[7][8] It created two new entities, Westpac New Zealand Limited, a locally incorporated subsidiary of Westpac Banking Corporation, and Westpac Banking Corporation New Zealand Branch, a branch of Westpac Banking Corporation.
On 29 September 2006 the New Zealand Commerce Commission fined Westpac NZ$5.1 million for hidden foreign transaction fees, with most of the fine being reimbursement to affected customers, in the order of 12% of the fees actually charged. All other banks operating in New Zealand had either already been fined or were awaiting a court case.[9]
In April 2009, Westpac mistakenly increased the overdraft limit of service station operator Leo Gao and his girlfriend Kara Hurring to $10 million instead of the approved $100,000. This sparked the "runaway millionaire" case where Gau and Hurring took $6 million from the account and went on the run overseas. They were finally arrested in 2011 and charged in 2012 but $3.8 million of the missing money was never recovered.[10]
In October 2009, Westpac NZ was required to pay NZ$961 million to the Inland Revenue Department in avoided taxes.[11]
The Headquarters of Westpac New Zealand was moved to Auckland City's Takutai Square in 2011.[12]
On 22 July 2014, the firm announced that it would pilot a host card emulation (HCE) mobile payments technology to customers. It was the first bank in New Zealand to actively bring HCE mobile payments to market[13] and one of only a handful of banks globally to be using the 'digital wallet' technology. After three-month trial, using Carta Worldwide HCE technology, customers could use their Android smartphones as digital wallets. Soon after, in August 2014, Westpac NZ announced that it would be releasing the world's first augmented bank app, which added layers of functionality to the digital wallet by enabling users to check account balances, view previous spending behaviours, pay bills and locate their nearest Westpac NZ branch or ATM.[14]
