NZ abandons KiwiSaver kick-start, super hits $2.0 trillion, ANZ's new Philippines CEO, consumers' fi 22 May 2015 4:03PM Banking Day staff The New Zealand Government announced in its Budget for 2015 that it had stopped its NZ$1,000 kick-start payment to new KiwiSaver pension members from 21 May, in order to save NZ$175 million next year. This allows the Government to forecast a surplus for 2015/16. The Government will continue to pay a NZ$521 matching contribution to existing KiwiSavers, most of whom have KiwiSaver accounts with the Big Four Australian-owned banks in New Zealand. A survey by Mortgage Choice has found 54 per cent of Australians are either "very worried" or "concerned" about their finances. This is despite indications that most are saving more money and paying off debt faster than ever before: one in every three said they had more than A$20,000 in savings (less than 30 per cent in 2014), while 56 per cent said they had less than $10,000 in debt - including 43 per cent who said their debt was less than $5,000. ANZ has announced Peter Chan is to be its next chief executive for its Philippines operations, reporting to Sameer Sawhney, ANZ's managing director for South East Asia and India. The bank said its current CEO for the Philippines, Panadda Manoleehakul, would "continue lead the work program associated with the establishment of ANZ's branch presence in Thailand" before moving to an unspecified senior role elsewhere in the bank. Chan, who is chief of staff to Andrew Géczy, CEO of ANZ's international and institutional banking division, is expected to take up his new role from 1 June. APRA's quarterly superannuation statistics, released yesterday, show total assets hit A$2.0 trillion at the end of the March 2015 quarter. This was up by $115 billion from December 2014, and an increase of 14.3 per cent over total superannuation assets for the same period in 2014. Total assets in MySuper products were $420.2 billion, an increase of 23.1 per cent on the March 2014 number. Total benefit payments made in the March 2015 quarter showed an increase of 9.2 per cent over the first quarter last year.