By Gareth Vaughan
ANZ's review of its continued use of the National Bank brand won't be completed for up to another six months with the bank saying it's focusing its resources on Christchurch.
David Hisco, ANZ New Zealand CEO, told interest.co.nz in March that ANZ had hoped to complete a review of its use of the National Bank brand in New Zealand by the middle of this year. And Hisco's boss, ANZ Group CEO Mike Smith, said he'd like to see both ANZ and National Bank customers able to use the two banks as one bank because operating two separate banks in New Zealand was inefficient.
An ANZ spokeswoman told interest.co.nz yesterday that there hadn't really been a fixed date by which the review was due to be complete.
"But the Christchurch quake has interrupted the process," she said.
"David's still hoping to make a decision by the end of the year, but we can't be more specific as to timing," the spokeswoman added.
ANZ announced the A$4.915 billion purchase of the National Bank from Britain's Lloyds TSB in October 2003. The price excluded a dividend paid to Lloyds of NZ$575 million from National Bank's
retained earnings. ANZ said then it intended to retain both the ANZ and National Bank brands for retail and small business customers subject to a trademark agreement. The group's rural business would operate under the National Bank name.
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.
However, the ANZ spokeswoman said the National Bank review was "on the table," given ANZ doesn't have the Lloyds brand forever.
"We are thinking through the issues around how the brands work together - and we'll take as much time as necessary to do that. In the meantime though we are absolutely committed to maintaining ANZ New Zealand as the largest branch network in New Zealand with the largest number of people supporting our customers."
If ANZ does decide to ditch the National Bank brand it won't have to write-down the NZ$3 billion plus worth of goodwill stemming from its 2003 purchase because the goodwill is backed by cash flow rather than being a brand or logo valuation.
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