Smellie Sniffs the Breeze: why the government took Kiwibank back

After 20 years as part of NZ Post, Jim Anderton's baby – Kiwibank – will be a standalone government-owned bank. (Image: NZME)

Pattrick Smellie

Tue, 23 Aug 2022

The resumption of direct government ownership of 100% of Kiwibank is being talked up politically as another bold move by a government determined to deliver competition.In the same way that a supermarket regulator will likely be announced later in the week, and in line with tough talk on petrol prices and uncompetitive building products supply, the government gets to ensure there will be New Zealand-owned competitors for the big four Aussie-owned banks.That may well be so, but how we got to this point is a bit less exciting than that and is...

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