Heartland, which includes vehicle finance operation Marac amongst it’s businesses, announced on Tuesday that a decision on it’s application for bank registration is now expected before Christmas.
The decision was originally expected by November 30, the date of Heartland’s annual general meeting.
In January 2011 the merger between CBS Canterbury, Southern Cross Building Society and Marac created a finance group with a footprint across NZ industry, further strengthened by the 2011 acquisition of PGG Wrightson Finance, adding experience and weight to Heartland’s rural strategy.
Craig Stephen, Heartland’s head of treasury and strategy explained to DIESELtalk that they regard the banking licence as a ‘final hurdle’ in their overall strategy to provide a full banking service with a broad range of financial products to New Zealand’s productive sector.
“We’re different to other banks in that we only raise and invest money locally, which reduces our exposure to international volatility”, says Stephen.
Stephen says that as a bank they seek to align themselves with New Zealand’s productive economy.
“We place great focus around hard working New Zealanders in the productive sector who require passenger vehicles and capital equipment to reach their business goals”.
“Passenger vehicles, transport and equipment are areas of great interest to us,” says Stephen. “We’re small, we’re agile and local and one of the benefits from being a bank is our strong local knowledge of New Zealand business.”
