Post Office Savings Bank, or very briefly PostBank (trading name of Post Office Bank Limited), was a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

owned by the

New Zealand Government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

as the government's

postal savings system Postal savings systems provide depositors who do not have access to banks a safe and convenient method to save money. Many nations have operated banking systems involving post offices to promote saving money among the poor. History In 1861, G ...

. The bank was established in 1867. It became PostBank in 1987 and was disestablished and the branches were rebranded when it was acquired by

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It is Australia's second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest bank by ma ...

in 1989.

History

The Post Office Savings Bank was set up in 1867 to encourage thrift by ordinary people, and was immediately successful. One of the benefits of the Post Office Savings Bank was that customers could deposit and withdraw money at any branch of the bank. Business was conducted from post offices which were located in towns and cities all over New Zealand. By the 1910s customers were asking for the ability to withdraw their funds by cheque but successive postmasters-general refused to allow this, stating that the Post Office Savings Bank was not the same as a commercial bank, having as its objective thrift and regular deposits, not convenience. This had the effect of making it easy to deposit money but harder to withdraw it. However the bank eventually moved with the times and cheques were introduced in 1958. During its long history the Post Office Savings Bank introduced various other products including school banking (the 'Squirrel' savings accounts) and

Bonus Bonds Bonus Bonds was a New Zealand unit trust founded in 1970 with a reward scheme based on cash prizes. The New Zealand government launched Bonus Bonds under the Unit Trusts Act 1960 through the Post Office Savings Bank with the goal of encouragin ...

PostBank

PostBank was formed when the

New Zealand Post Office The New Zealand Post Office (NZPO) was a government department of New Zealand until 1987. It was previously (from 1881 to 1959) named the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department (NZ P&T). As a government department, the New Zealand Post Office ...

(a former Government Department) was split up by the ''Postal Services Act 1987'' into Post Office Bank Ltd (trading as PostBank), New Zealand Post Ltd (a postal services company) and Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Ltd (a telecommunications company). It purchased the assets of the former Post Office Savings Bank. PostBank was sold two years after it was formed to

ANZ ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand ** ...

, with the PostBank brand being absorbed and finally removed by the late 1990s. PostBank shared many operating characteristics with the later

Kiwibank Kiwibank Limited is a New Zealand state-owned bank and financial services provider with approximately 4% of market share in terms of assets. Kiwibank is owned by the New Zealand Government and provides some of its banking services through its ...

, a bank which initially operated as a

wholly owned subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company (law), company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company ...

of the

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

New Zealand Post Limited NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal servi ...

. Later, Kiwibank and New Zealand Post started a process of no longer co-locating, with Kiwibank opening 13 stand-alone premises.

References

External links

Information about the Post Office Savings Bank
in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Defunct banks of New Zealand Banks established in 1867 Banks disestablished in 1989 1989 disestablishments in New Zealand New Zealand companies established in 1867 Postal savings system {{NewZealand-gov-stub