A preliminary report by the Commerce Commission released today confirms that New Zealand banks are amongst the most profitable banks in comparable countries, based on the three main measures of bank profitability (return in equity, return on assets and net interest margin).

"On all three measures, New Zealand banks have consistently been above the upper quartile of sampled countries for the last eight years. From 2015 to 2019 NZ banks had the highest return on equity across all sampled countries", said FIRST Union Researcher and Policy Analyst Edward Miller.

"The Commerce Commission findings closely reflects what was outlined by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in its May Financial Stability Report, as well as FIRST Union research released in March 2023," said Miller.

FIRST Union Retail Finance and Commerce Secretary Bill Bradford said the research confirmed what NZ consumers already feel on a daily basis.

"Working people already know they are being taken for a ride by the Big Four banks, that consistently generate record profits off the back of a brutal housing and cost of living crisis", said Bradford.

"Bank workers are similarly dismayed that after extracting so much wealth from our communities and delivering billions in dividends to their offshore parent companies, they are still offering real wage cuts in collective bargaining", said Bradford.

"Yesterday, Westpac workers said enough is enough, and began industrial action against this institutional rort. The Commerce Commission’s findings will add further fuel to this fire. NZ banks would be well advised to reconsider how they value their workforce and the communities they rely on."

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