NZ First would buy the Bank of New Zealand back from National Australia Bank and merge it with Kiwibank to form the National Bank of New Zealand — fully Crown owned, commercially run, and big enough to compete with ANZ, ASB and Westpac. It would not come out of the operating budget: the funding stack is a sovereign banking bond, long-dated Crown debt, a limited tranche of Future Fund and ACC money, and Kiwibank’s existing capital.
BNZ would be bought back from National Australia Bank and merged with Kiwibank into a single Crown-owned commercial bank with the scale to compete with the other majors. The document notes that when National sold BNZ to NAB in November 1992 it had six of every ten New Zealand banking customers.
Four Australian-owned banks control around 85 percent of the system and, the document says, lend New Zealand deposits back at margins materially higher than their parents earn in Australia. It cites the Commerce Commission’s 2024 personal banking market study as finding a structurally uncompetitive market with no sustained pressure to compete on price and no realistic threat of new entry at scale. Kiwibank was created in 2002 as a domestic challenger but holds just under 8 percent of the mortgage market.
A blended funding stack rather than a single source, built so that BNZ’s own earnings service the debt raised to buy it. The document describes the result as self-financing in expectation, with the fiscal impact being a one-off balance-sheet expansion rather than an ongoing cost.
Not a government department, and the document is explicit that it does not regard this as nationalisation. A fully commercial bank with a Crown shareholder, intended as a strategic domestic lender for agriculture, infrastructure and SME growth on long-horizon terms. The management structure is deferred to later campaign announcements.
“Four Australian owned banks control around 85 percent of the system.”
“Successive governments have starved it of the capital it would need to be a genuine system-shaping competitor.”
“The buy-back is self-financing in expectation. The fiscal impact is a one-off balance-sheet expansion, not an ongoing cost.”
“This is not nationalisation – this is taking back our country.”
Points the document defers or leaves undefined. These are gaps in the document, not criticisms of the policy.
Which party holds a published position on which topic.
Swipe across to see all 11 topics — the party column stays put.
| Party | Economy | Housing | Health | Education | Climate | Environment | Crime & Justice | Treaty & Māori Affairs | Immigration | Foreign Policy | Democracy & Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National |
| ∅ |
| Labour | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ | ∅ |
| Green |
| ACT |
| NZ First |
| Te Pāti Māori |
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| NZ Loyal | ∅ | ||||||||||
| Te Tai Tokerau | ∅ | ||||||||||