Te reo an option for customers using ATMs
NZ Post’s profit slashed by one-third
All of ANZ’s ATMs will now give users the choice of banking in te reo.
The update to New Zealand’s largest ATM network, coinciding with the start of Maori Language Week, was marked with ANZ’s Queen St ATMs being transformed by colourful artwork by students at the bilingual unit of Sylvia Park School Te Puna Waiora.
The students were asked to create designs in the theme of “Why te reo is important to them”. Each individual design was then compiled and now features on four ATMs in Auckland and Wellington.
Sylvia Park School Principal Barbara Ala’alatoa said working on the ATM design reinforced the importance of projects linked to cultural identity.
“For kids to be able to change the world, for them to be able to know they’ve got a place in it, they need to know who they are. Their cultural identity is hugely important to them to be able to stand tall,” Ala’alatoa said.
As well as English and te reo Maori, ATMs are available in simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
Westpac has added te reo Waikato as an option on its ATMs, alongside te reo Maori.
Westpac said the option to use the ATM in te reo Maori was used on average 3300 times a month.
“We’re thrilled our ATM technology has allowed us to add more language options and that our partnership with Waikato-Tainui has presented the opportunity to begin adding specific regional dialects,” said Karen Silk, general manager of commercial, corporate and institutional banking at Westpac. New Zealand Post’s annual profit fell by a third after it sold almost half of its stake in Kiwibank.
Net profit fell to $93 million in the 12 months ended June 30, from $141m a year earlier, the state-owned enterprise said. Revenue slipped 5.1 per cent to $890m, while expenditure declined 9 per cent to $887m.
The latest earnings include a $71m contribution from its 53 per cent share in Kiwi Group Holdings, down from $131m the year before, after NZ Post sold 47 per cent of the Kiwibank business in October.
NZ Post booked a $24m gain on the sale of its Kiwibank holding in the latest year, and a $43m gain the previous year from the sale of its Converga subsidiary.
NZ Post is in the final year of a fiveyear transformation plan started in 2013 as it seeks to bolster its core mail delivery business amid declining letter volumes and growing parcel volumes.
In the latest year, letter volumes dropped 11 per cent while parcel volumes increased 8.5 per cent. Its postal business recorded an after-tax loss of $3m in the latest year, an improvement from a $38m loss a year earlier, as salary and wage costs dropped to $311m from $377m.
Chief executive David Walsh said that in the coming year NZ Post would focus on converting parcel volume growth into higher revenue and taking further steps to make the letters business more sustainable.
NZ Post will pay a $105m dividend to the Crown, reflecting a $100m special dividend from the sale of its Kiwibank stake to the NZ Superannuation Fund and the Accident Compensation Corp.