(11 May 2004 – Australia) The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has given ANZ written consent to proceed with the legal amalgamation of ANZ New Zealand and National Bank of New Zealand.ANZ requires legal amalgamation, which is tipped to occur sometime next month, before it can formally start integrating the two banks.
RBNZ consent is subject to a number of formal undertakings made by ANZ, such as ensuring the primacy of the New Zealand board of directors; making sure staff have primary responsibility to the local managing director; and that management systems and operations can work independently in case of a crisis.
ANZ chief executive John McFarlane said integration was on track and that confirmed revenue synergies had been upgraded while cost synergies were in line with those in the rights issue prospectus.
ANZ bought NBNZ for A$5.4 billion from British bank Lloyds TSB in December 2003.