Standalone branch among Kiwibank plans

EMPLOYEES in four Dunedin branches of Kiwibank face an uncertain future as the bank prepares to make sweeping changes to its operations in Dunedin — including a new standalone bank.

The existing Kiwibank branches in Dunedin share their premises with New Zealand Post.

A Kiwibank spokeswoman confirmed yesterday the bank wanted to open a standalone branch in Dunedin’s central business district, and said it was consulting staff on the future of four existing branches in the city.

Those branches were Dunedin North in Great King St, South Dunedin in King Edward St, Moray Pl and Mosgiel.

According to E Tu union, NZ Post is also planning to close, and then franchise out, postal services in its Dunedin North and South Dunedin branches.

Union organiser Mike Kirwood said he understood NZ Post would continue to offer postal services from Moray Pl and Mosgiel, but Kiwibank would be removed from those branches.

The spokeswoman said the future of Kiwibank in Dunedin ‘‘has not been confirmed’’.

However, the bank did intend to open a standalone branch somewhere in Dunedin’s CBD.

‘‘This is a model we first introduced back in 2016, and it has received great customer feedback from the branches we have opened so far,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘Impact to staff won’t be known until closer to the time of the actual changes taking place, which could be many months from now.

‘‘We will keep the community informed as we know more.’’

All 31 staff in the North and South Dunedin, Mosgiel and Green Island branches of NZ Post and Kiwibank worked for the same employer, Mr Kirwood said.

Some staff dealt solely with postal services, some solely with banking, and others did both.

He estimated the restructure could take about a year in Dunedin, as a similar process in Queenstown had already been drawn out for about 10 months.

Whether the proposal went ahead depended on what was brought up during the 28day consultation period, which began last Tuesday, but he did really not expect any change.

The move was not ‘‘out of the blue’’, since changes had already been made elsewhere in the country. However, employees had not expected Kiwibank to be leaving South Dunedin, and in his opinion it was a bad judgement call.

He estimated that if a standalone branch of the bank went ahead, it might employ about six people.

NZ Post general manager of channels and distribution Janet Selwood said on Monday the company was committed to staying in Dunedin.

It already worked ‘‘successfully with local businesses who provide postal services for us’’.