Wanganui's branch of the Westpac bank is the only one in the country with more savings in than it has credit out.
It celebrated 150 years in the city this week, with an afternoon tea and talk from chief economist Dominick Stephens on Thursday, a cake cutting and staff informer uniforms yesterday and a cocktail party for dignitaries, staff, former staff and customers last night.
The bank's history in Wanganui does go back 150 years.
The very beginning was on September 3, 1861, when the Bank of New South Wales took over the Whanganui Oriental Bank. That first manager was James Dow Busby, the son of James Busby.
The first building was wooden, two-storey and in Ridgway St. It opened in the same year the men of the 65th regiment left town.
In 1865, the bank built new premises at 39 Victoria Ave, which was destroyed by fire three years later, and then rebuilt.
In 1911, it was demolished and replaced with a substantial two-storey brick building with staff living space above. In 1934, after the Napier earthquake, the building's ornamental parapets were removed. More alterations were done in 1959.
Always an attractive building, it now has a Category II registration with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
By the 1960s, staff were complaining of inconvenience again, but it wasn't until 1989 that the bank moved to 161 Victoria Ave.
Before that, in 1982, it merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia. At that time its name was changed to Westpac, after the Western Pacific Banking Corporation Act which legislated the merger. Then, in 1996, it purchased the bank that had first been the Wanganui Savings Bank and then part of Trust Bank.
These days Westpac Wanganui has 31 staff and is still at 161 Victoria Ave.
