By Gareth Vaughan

The ANZ Banking Group's review of its ongoing use of the National Bank brand has been "parked", with no decision coming in 2011 and ANZ New Zealand CEO David Hisco raising the possibility of continuing to use it until a licencing deal with National Bank's previous owner runs out in 2014.

Asked about the well publicised review of the use of the National Bank brand yesterday Hisco told interest.co.nz it had "sort of" been "parked for a while."

"We've done our research (and) we're working on the integration of the (ANZ and National Bank IT) systems," said Hisco.

"What I can tell you from our research is the thing people are most concerned about is closure of branches and loss of front line staff (if the National Bank brand is dumped). I've already given an assurance to our front line staff that their jobs are safe so we've closed that issue down and they're all comfortable with that. We need all our front line staff to serve our customers."

"We've parked that issue for a while now well we work through what we need to do and what our options are in terms of when we eventually have to surrender the licence brand back to Lloyds."

The ANZ Group bought National Bank from Britain's Lloyds TSB in October 2003 for A$4.915 billion, excluding a dividend paid to Lloyds of NZ$575 million from National Bank's retained earnings, and retained both the ANZ and National Bank brands and branch networks. Last year ANZ renewed its rights to use the Lloyds black horse on a green and white background as the National Bank logo until the end of 2014.

Asked if the group may continue using the National Bank name until 2014 Hisco said: "That's obviously an option. The other part of it is it is a competitive issue for us so once we've decided what we're going to do the first thing we'll do is tell our staff and the second thing we'll do is tell everybody else."

He said no decision was likely this calendar year. Asked if a decision might be made next year or beyond Hisco said: "We like to keep our competitors guessing."

In June an ANZ spokeswoman told interest.co.nz a decision on the ongoing use of the National Bank brand was likely by the end of the year. And prior to that, in March, ANZ Group CEO Mike Smith told interest.co.nz he'd like to see ANZ and National Bank customers able to use the two banks as one because operating two separate banks in New Zealand was inefficient.

Meanwhile, figures recently supplied to interest.co.nz by Nielsen AIS show ANZ NZ significantly increased advertising spending through its ANZ brand in the first eight months of the year as it reined in advertising spend on the National Bank. ANZ NZ spent NZ$17.7 million on advertising the ANZ brand in the eight months to August 31 this year, compared with just NZ$14.6 million in the entire 2010 calendar year. In contrast, National Bank advertising spending totaled just NZ$2.3 million in the eight months to August, compared with NZ$16.7 million in 2010.

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