New Zealand banks boosted their combined profit to almost $1 billion in the March quarter, but an ultra-competitive lending environment appears to be favouring big players, like ANZ, over smaller operators such as TSB and Kiwibank, according to new research.
KPMG's quarterly Financial Institutions Performance Survey said the collective profit of the nine banks surveyed lifted 12.9 per cent on the December quarter to $971 million.
And of course most of this money went straight overseas to Australia, rather than being reinvested in New Zealand to create jobs for New Zealanders.
This what happens when you have a non-competitive banking sector dominated by a foreign oligopoly: a permanent siphon in our economy which profits from our misery. As for what to do about it, breaking up those banks and returning them to local ownership would be a good start...