Auckland Savings Bank
The Auckland Savings Bank in 1847 in Auckland founded and was the first Savings Bank ( Sparkasse ) in the fledgling colony of New Zealand .
history
On May 8, 1847, an advertisement in the New Zealander (1845-1852) indicated the imminent opening of New Zealand's first savings bank , the Auckland Savings Bank . The initiators of the bank were leading traders and dignitaries of the city. They had a municipal bank in mind, which firstly should serve the citizens of the city, secondly keep the yield in the municipality and thirdly also be a bank to save for the "little people".
The displeasure and the public criticism about the lack of a savings bank in New Zealand had grown up over the years. In early December 1842 an editor wrote in the Auckland Times , following a description of the circumstances of arriving immigrants : "Is there a defect there in Auckland that makes it impossible to set up an institution as desirable, necessary and simple as a savings bank?" The editor and others would have to wait almost five years.
The Auckland Savings Bank , the date of its establishment is not known , was opened on May 5 with the participation of George Edward Gray , Governor of the British Colony of New Zealand and first President of the bank and John Logan Campbell , the bank's first secretary and later mayor of Auckland. June 1847.
By the end of the year, the savings were just £ 176 , deposited by 19 customers and the following three years were marked by recurring payment difficulties. But the turning point came when larger sections of the workforce became interested in saving.
Over the years, more and more wealthy citizens and politicians became involved in the bank. For example, it became a custom in the 19th century in the city of Auckland for the city's mayors to also become trustees (trustworthy administrators) of the bank, thereby increasing the trust of the citizens in the bank. Almost 50 years later, at the end of 1899, the bank's balance sheet showed 25,095 customers with £ 653,599 deposits. That was remarkable for a locally operating bank, which also had to assert itself against the strong competition of the larger banks at this time .
In comparison, the largest bank at the time, the Bank of New Zealand , had deposits of £ 3,517,391 as early as 1875.
A similarly strong savings bank movement also emerged in Dunedin and Invercargill , the two cities that each also established a corresponding bank in 1864.
In 1988 all Savings Banks were forced by the ruling Labor Party through the Trustee Banks Restructuring Order to reorganize and become a normal company, with far-reaching consequences. Now treated as a normal company for legal and tax purposes, the Trust Savings Banks merged, were sold to Westpac Banking Corporation in 1996 and eventually merged with what would later become Westpac New Zealand .
Only Auckland Savings Bank , which had already renamed itself to ASB Bank Limited before the restructuring , got out before the sale and was bought by the ASB Charitable Trust founded on May 30, 1988 , which owned the bank, in 1989 for 252 million . NZ $ 75% to the Commonwealth Bank sold. In October 2000 the remaining 25% were sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia . This time the proceeds were NZ $ 560 million.
On March 31, 2006, the ASB Charitable Trust was dissolved and the entire capital was transferred to the ASB Bank Community Trust , which was renamed the ASB Community Trust on July 17, 2006 .
With the capital from the bank sale, the ASB Community Trust is today financing a. social, cultural and educational projects in and around Auckland and Northland .
The bank's building on Queen Street was registered as a Category 1 Monument by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on June 27, 1988 under number 4473. The ground floor now houses a McDonald’s branch .
literature
- Auckland Provincial District . In: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . Volume II . Cyclopedia Company Ltd , Christchurch 1902 (English).
- ASB Bank - Business History Project - The University of Auckland (accessed August 17, 2009)
Individual evidence
- ^ New Zealanders. Volume 2, Issue 101, May 8, 1847, p. 1
- ^ New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser. Volume I, Issue 39, December 13, 1842, p. 2
- ^ Sydney James Butlin : Australia and New Zealand Bank. Longmans, London 1961.
- ^ Trustee Banks Restructuring Order 1988 - Legislation Government (accessed August 19, 2009)
- ^ History Of ASB Community Trust. ASB Community Trust, archived from the original on April 6, 2009 ; accessed on July 22, 2013 (English).
- ^ Auckland Savings Bank Building. Historic Place Category 1. In: New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero . Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga , July 27, 1988, accessed September 23, 2019 .