Closure of Kiwibank branch near Nelson a 'kick in the guts' for community

Dr Nick Smith called on Winston Peters and Shane Jones to tell Kiwibank and NZ Post that withdrawal of services in a community like Stoke is not on.

Urgent government intervention is being sought to stop the closure of a Kiwibank branch in Nelson.

The publicly owned bank today announced it is withdrawing services from Stoke, a suburb in Nelson, that it shares with NZ Post.

“We regularly review our locations, looking at two things; firstly, the number of customers using the services in that location and secondly, other available Kiwibank services in close proximity. Based on that, we’ve made the decision not to continue our physical presence in Stoke,” says Kiwibank general manager retail distribution Geoff Waller.

Kiwibank has opened 14 standalone branches around New Zealand since 2016, while withdrawing from seven locations over the past year.

Nelson MP Dr Nick Smith says the decision is a “kick in the guts” for the people of Stoke.

“Stoke has a population of over 16,000 people, with over 4,500 of these being retired, making it one of the highest proportions of older populations anywhere in New Zealand,” says Dr Smith.

Nelson Greypower agrees it will disadvantage older citizens who are more dependent on face-to-face banking services.

“We find it difficult to understand why the branch is being closed when it is clear the branch is busy with it often having queues for people waiting for services,” says Nelson Greypower President Mrs Tuffnell.

Both she and Nick Smith have written a joint letter addressed to Minister of State Owned Enterprises Winston Peters and Minister for Regional Economic Development Shane Jones calling for government intervention to stop the closure.

The pair noted that in August, Minister Shane Jones was critical of privately owned Australian banks shutting branches in provincial areas and sought Reserve Bank intervention to maintain services.

“Ministers cannot be critical of private banks closing branches when its own Kiwibank is doing the same,” they wrote.

NZ Post is now looking to partner with a local business to help deliver its postal services that were previously available from the Stoke branch.

It came under fire earlier this year for removing postal boxes in Nelson and around the country.

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