Pyne Gould seeks banking authority

New Zealand finance company Pyne Gould Corp yesterday said it planned to seek approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to convert to bank status.

Existing financial services businesses Marac and Perpetual will form the core of the new bank, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Marac reported a net profit of NZ$25.9 billion on receivables of NZ$1.3 billion in the year to June 2008.

Presumably bank status, if the finance firm can qualify, will improve the firm's funding options at a time that more than a dozen other, mainly smaller, firms have failed.

Pyne Gould did not say yesterday whether they planned to raise new capital.