The fuss made from the left over a possible part sale of Kiwibank would be easy to understand if the bank was a roaring success but the bank that was set up in the early 2000s to buy votes for Labour and Jim Anderton has been a drain on taxpayer funds since then.You will read the exact opposite in the mainstream left media but this particular Government Department just doesn't cut it.
A $NZ 125 million set up cost and continued subsidization from New Zealand post means Kiwibank has been a big failure.
Some forget what happened last time politicians got involved in banking in New Zealand, with the BNZ having to be bailed out by the taxpayer in the late 1980s after it went belly up. Why do some insist we keep something because it makes Kiwibank customers feel all warm and fuzzy while the rest of us subsidise them with our taxes?
A possible float of Kiwibank would ameliorate the demands of Kiwibank management for more taxpayer dosh for expansion of the bank.
I am of the view that the bank be sold outright and the money returned to taxpayers but any float, partial or full would benefit the bank and the company in one fell swoop.
We have a smaller bank, TSB Savings Bank, that is community owned and it has powered ahead the likes of Kiwibank without taxpayer handouts, growing business a real and sustainable way by using largely customer deposits to lend to other customers (you know, how a real bank operates)
By subsidising the likes of Kiwibank we stifle real private business like TSB. When their competitors have the advantage of taxpayer funding it really isn't a level playing field. The only winners are the bureaucrats working at the bank.
So, lets float or sell Kiwibank. In the long-term it is going to save us alot of money.
TSB have just announced their 23rd consecutive annual record profit of $51.2 million, up 19% on last year. This compares with a $23.4 million half year 2009 profit (bolstered by NZ Post & taxpayer funding) by Kiwibank, down 9% on last year. TSB have acheived their results on less than half the assets that Kiwibank has on its balance sheet.
Figures don't lie.
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