Westpac branch to give up loans, deposits
Westpac NZ branch will have to transfer its entire deposits and loans, and half of the funding from group entities, to meet the requirements of the new operating model for its businesses in New Zealand.As of June 2010, the amounts proposed to be transferred include customer loans of NZ$6.8 billion, customer deposits of NZ$4.7 billion and intra-group funding of around NZ$3 billion.The loans mostly comprise non-housing loans and the rest are made up of overdraft, money market loans and an "other" category of lending. Nearly 98 per cent of the loans are due in the next 12 months.Affected deposits comprise at call as well as term deposits and almost all the deposits are due within a year. The branch had no retail deposits.Westpac said in its quarterly disclosure statements, published yesterday, that the above business activities had total revenues of around NZ$130 million in the nine months to June 2010 and net profit after tax of NZ$90 million.Westpac has reiterated the transfers will be implemented by the end of the 2011 calendar year.The new model mainly aims at correcting a breach of conditions of registration that occurred when Westpac branch's liabilities, net of amounts due to related parties, exceeded the NZ$15 billion mark. Once that limit is reached, a bank is deemed to be "systemically important" and therefore can no longer operate as a branch.Westpac has also been in breach of another condition of registration which basically relates to the Reserve Bank's Outsourcing Policy. One of the requirements was met in the quarter ending December 2009 and another relating to addition of more legal and practical controls in relation to a product was met on 30 June.Westpac now says there is a non-compliance relating to the period from April 1 that the bank is working to remedy. This involves enhancing legal control to be able to deliver certain settlement services currently provided by the branch in relation to functions provided to Westpac NZ by Interchange and Settlement Limited.