Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
The government is going to crack down on the Big Banks. I bet they are scared. The finance minister has a cunning plan. The best part is that it costs her no money. Instead she wants to use your money.
The Beehive says, “The Commerce Commission has proven what’s been long-suspected: NZ’s banking sector is uncompetitive and Kiwis are not well served by a highly profitable, two-tier oligopoly.”
I have asked Treasury to engage with Kiwibank’s parent company Kiwi Group Capital on options for raising new capital, including from KiwiSaver funds ... I will take proposals to Cabinet no later than December this year.
So who controls the biggest KiwiSaver funds? Who directs where Kiwis invest their money? Here are (by far) the 10 biggest in the country, managing a large chunk of those funds:
ANZ KIWISAVER GROWTH FUND
ANZ KIWISAVER BALANCED GROWTH FUND
ANZ KIWISAVER BALANCED FUND
ASB KIWISAVER GROWTH FUND
ASB BALANCED FUND
ASB KIWISAVER CONSERVATIVE FUND
WESTPAC KIWISAVER GROWTH FUND
WESTPAC KIWISAVER CONSERVATIVE FUND
WESTPAC KIWISAVER BALANCED FUND
FISHER FUNDS KIWISAVER GROWTH FUND
Oh gosh, nine out of 10 are controlled by the Big Banks: ANZ, Westpac and ASB. Only one in is not – Fisher Funds. Good luck to the finance minister convincing KiwiSaver funds to start investing way more in smaller banks like Kiwibank to make banking more competitive – so those Big Banks can have their profits slashed. I mean, you couldn’t make it up.
This article was originally publised by Down to Earth Kiwi.
