ASB draws its longbow
According to ASB’s Twitter account, good banking isn’t about ownership (or apostrophes). It’s about love and devotion.
But MP and Kiwibank stalwart Jim Anderton tends to disagree and certainly doesn’t think ASB should be allowed to pass itself off as a Kiwi bank.
ASB’s new tagline, which trumpets the fact it’s been a Kiwi bank since 1847, as well as the public response to it, tends to indicate ownership is, in fact, rather important. Anderton says it has been 100 per cent owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia since 2000 and no-one really knows who owns that (maybe it’s Goldstein?) so the MP and a few others feel ASB is drawing a fairly long bow with this claim.
Kiwibank certainly hasn’t been shy in sticking the boot into its Aussie competitors in the past. In fact, that’s been the central focus of its campaigns.
It got a slap on the wrist in 2007 for imploring Kiwi students to sign up for accounts from Aussie banks temporarily and then bag all their freebies and also uttering inflammatory phrases such as “those Aussie bankers are out to get you”.
Their “reprehensible” ads of late have remained staunchly anti-Aussie, too.
Perhaps the Kiwibank (as well as the TSB and SBS) resistance is having its desired effect.
Su Yin Khoo
November 4, 2009
So what have they been doing for customers and the community for 162 years? Why not make a bigger deal about that rather than trying to prove their Kiwi-ness?
Vincent Heeringa
November 4, 2009
All this Kiwi-ness is parochial and embarrassing. Give me great service, the backing of a reliable parent bank and then return significant proceeds to the community through a trust.
Oh, okay, that's what ASB is and has been doing for decades.
Please ASB, ignore the self-appointed patriots (last refuge of the scoundrels) and just get on with all the above.
And if Goldstein must go at least give him a decent send off.
Hayden Vink
November 12, 2009
I'm not so fussed about how 'kiwi' my bank is, nor how much money is being returned to my community . . I just want the best bank for me: http://haydenvink.com/fastlane/2009/11/better-bank/