Departing bank chief reveals fight for NZ listing

WELLINGTON - Departing WestpacTrust chief executive Harry Price said he had to fight for many years to get a local sharemarket listing for New Zealanders.

The battle ended in October when Westpac listed on the New Zealand sharemarket with 31,000 new shareholders, making up about 15 percent of the group's total shareholders.

"The whole reason we did this wasn't to raise $600 million to $700 million in capital ... we have bags of the stuff. It was to get more New Zealanders owning the shares," Mr Price said.

There were tax issues for New Zealanders owning shares in Australian companies and to resolve them Westpac Banking Corporation, which owns WestpacTrust, developed a New Zealand class share with exposure to the whole group.

Mr Price shifts to Sydney this month to take up a new role with Westpac.

He will continue as Westpac's chief executive responsible for New Zealand and Pacific regional banking, as well as managing the group's change programme, but hands over the WestpacTrust top job to Tom Gallagher.

Mr Price said he wanted to ensure New Zealand continued to play a key role in the group.

"Basically, I don't want to see this bank do what all the others have done, and that is everything ends up in Australia."

Westpac has set out up to trim its costs by $A300 million ($378.31 million), through streamlining support functions, cutting jobs and closing country branches.

Mr Price intended ensuring New Zealand would perform some functions for the whole group.

He was not sure what, but said it could be card processing or systems development.

There was now a view at board level that New Zealand was a key part of the business, and that had not always been the case, Mr Price said.

On the hot topic of bank fees, he said the banks had not done a good enough job in communicating where the value lay for their customers.

He said margins on mortgages had thinned substantially: "Only a few years ago margins were 4 per cent now they are 1.25 per cent."

He rejected a recent Massey University study that found bank profits excessive. They were adequate at present and well below that of some overseas banks, he said.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to the return the shareholders want and how much risk they are prepared to put up with."

Banks did not make money out of half their customers, meaning the other half subsidised the rest.

Mr Price, 57, said he hoped to retire from Westpac in 12 months.

He planned to take up some directorships and become involved in social work and sports administration. - NZPA