Editing ASB Bank

{{Short description|Bank in New Zealand}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox company
| name = ASB Bank Limited
| logo = ASB Logo 2013.svg
| logo_size = 150px
| type = [[Subsidiary]]
| foundation = {{Start date and age|1847|06|5|df=y}} (as Auckland Savings Bank)
| location_city = [[Auckland]]
| location_country = New Zealand
| key_people = Vittoria Shortt, CEO<ref name="Shortt">{{cite web|title=ASB announces Vittoria Shortt as new Chief Executive|url=https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/media-centre/media-releases/asb-announces-vittoria-shortt-as-new-chief-executive.html|website=ASB Bank|access-date=27 February 2018|language=en-NZ}}</ref>
| area_served = New Zealand
| num_employees = 4907
| num_employees_year = 2018
| industry = [[Banking]]<br />[[Financial services]]<br />[[Investment|Investment services]]
| products = {{Unbulleted list |[[Finance and insurance]] |[[Retail banking|Consumer Banking]] |[[Commercial bank|Corporate Banking]] |[[Investment Banking]] |[[Investment Management]] |[[Mortgages]] |[[Credit Cards]]}}
| revenue = {{profit}} [[New Zealand dollar|NZ$]]1.607 billion (2011) <ref name="2011Annualreport" >{{cite web|url=https://www.asb.co.nz/-news-and-reports/-antenna/media-centre/asb/feed-view?cat=Annual+Reports&pos=1 |title=ASB Annual Report 2011|website=Asb.co.nz |format=PDF |access-date=27 July 2012}}</ref>
| operating_income ={{decrease}}${{#property:P3362}}s<ref name=ar>{{Cite web|url=https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/disclosure-statements/annual-report-june-2024.html|title=ASB Disclosure Statement and Annual Report 30 June 2024|date=30 Jun 2024|access-date=21 Mar 2025|publisher=ASB}}</ref>
| income_year=2024
| assets = {{profit}} NZ$63.5 billion (2012)<ref name="2012SustainabilityReport" >{{cite web|url=https://www.asb.co.nz/Flash/sustainability_Report/2011-2012/ |title=ASB Sustainability Report 2012 |format=PDF|website=Asb.co.nz |access-date=24 December 2012}}</ref>
| parent = [[Commonwealth Bank|Commonwealth Bank of Australia]]
| subsid = [[Sovereign Limited]]<br/>[[BankDirect]]
| homepage = {{URL |http://www.asb.co.nz/ }}
 }}'''ASB Bank Limited''', commonly stylised as '''ASB''',  is a bank owned by [[Commonwealth Bank|Commonwealth Bank of Australia]], operating in New Zealand. It provides a range of financial services including retail, business and rural banking, funds management, as well as insurance through its [[Sovereign Limited]] subsidiary, and investment and securities services through its '''ASB Group Investments''' and '''ASB Securities''' divisions. ASB also operated [[BankDirect]], a [[Direct bank|branchless banking service]] that provided service via phone, [[online banking|online]], [[EFTPOS]] and [[Automated teller machine|ATM]]s only.<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/96262080/its-no-longer-time-to-bankdirect | title=It's no longer time to BankDirect |last=Pullar-Strecker |first=Tom |date=29 Aug 2017 |website=Stuff |publisher= |access-date=17 Nov 2024 |quote="ASB Bank will close its internet and phone banking offshoot BankDirect and migrate its customers – who now number fewer than 10,000 – to ASB proper."}}</ref>

==History==
ASB was established in 1847 as the Auckland Savings Bank. The first meeting was held in the store of [[John Logan Campbell|Campbell]] and [[William Brown (New Zealand politician)|Brown]], and was attended by John Logan Campbell, Dr John Johnson, Rev [[Thomas Buddle]], [[John Jermyn Symonds]], John MacDougall, David Graham (a brother of [[Robert Graham (New Zealand politician)|Robert Graham]]), [[Robert Appleyard Fitzgerald]],<ref name="DNZB1940 Fitzgerald">{{cite book
 | page         = 259
 | editor-last  = Scholefield
 | editor-first = Guy
 | editor-link  = Guy Scholefield
 | title        = A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : A–L
 | volume       = I
 | year         = 1940
 | publisher    = [[Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand)|Department of Internal Affairs]]
 | location     = Wellington
 | url          = https://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/documents/dnzb-1940/scholefield-dnzb-v1.pdf
 | access-date   = 26 January 2014
}}</ref> [[Thomas Forsaith]], [[John Israel Montefiore]], [[James Dilworth]], [[Alexander Kennedy]], and William Smellie Graham.<ref>{{cite book
 |last          = Reed
 |first         = A. W.
 |author-link    = Alexander Wyclif Reed
 |title         = Auckland, the city of the seas
 |year          = 1955
 |publisher     = A.H. & A.W. Reed
 |location      = Wellington
 |page          = 80
}}</ref><gallery mode="packed">
File:Interior of the Auckland Savings Bank, 1090085.jpg|Interior of Auckland Savings Bank, circa 1910
File:Banking Akd Savings Bank, 1110549.jpg|View of banking chamber, Auckland Savings Bank, circa 1910
File:Auckland Savings Bank, 1072656.jpg|Auckland Savings Bank building, circa 1910
</gallery>During the 1980s the association of savings banks amalgamated the local savings banks throughout New Zealand with ASB at their head, and adopted the name, ASB Trust Bank. In 1986, ASB withdrew from the [[Trust Bank (New Zealand)|Trust Bank]] and in 1987 became a full-fledged [[commercial bank]] under the name, ASB Bank. In 1988, the Government passed the Trustee Banks Restructuring Act, which enabled ASB to become a public company. In 1989, the owner of the bank, [[ASB Community Trust]], sold 75% of the shares to [[Commonwealth Bank]]. In 1994, ASB purchased and amalgamated [[Westland Savings Bank|Westland Bank]], another former savings bank, located on the South Island's west coast, which enabled it to operate on a truly national basis.  In 1999, ASB Group acquired [[Sovereign Limited]], a life insurance company, and the retail stockbroking and fixed income operations of [[Warburg Dillon Read]]. In 2000, Commonwealth Bank bought the remaining 25% of ASB's shares from the Trust. In 2005 the bank changed the ASB Bank brand to ASB to reflect the more integrated financial services provider that it had become.

In early July 2020, ASB announced that it would be closing nine branches while 25 branches would be moving to three day weeks due to a shift in demand for online services. The company will also hire 150 additional staff to provide specialist online support.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nine ASB branches to close, 25 others to have opening hours slashed |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/420242/nine-asb-branches-to-close-25-others-to-have-opening-hours-slashed |access-date=1 July 2020 |work=[[Radio New Zealand]] |date=1 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701081616/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/420242/nine-asb-branches-to-close-25-others-to-have-opening-hours-slashed|archive-date=1 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Burrows |first1=Matt |title=ASB Bank closing nine branches in New Zealand's main centres |url=https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2020/07/asb-bank-losing-nine-branches-in-new-zealand-s-main-centres.html |access-date=1 July 2020 |work=[[Newshub]] |date=1 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701081933/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2020/07/asb-bank-losing-nine-branches-in-new-zealand-s-main-centres.html |archive-date=1 July 2020}}</ref>
==Innovation==
[[File:Ponsonby Corner Branch Of ASB.jpg|thumb|right|204x204px|A branch in [[Ponsonby, New Zealand|Ponsonby]], [[Auckland]]]]The bank has won awards including [[NetGuide]] Award for best financial services site in 2006 and 2007, [[TUANZ]] Innovation Award for Financial Service in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005, and recently Canstar's inaugural annual 'Best Online Banking Award' in 2012.<ref name="ASB wins best online bank award" >{{cite news|last=Crossley |first=Jazial |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7048480/ASB-wins-best-online-bank-award |title=ASB wins best online bank award|work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]]|date=6 June 2012|access-date=31 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110154835/http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7048480/ASB-wins-best-online-bank-award|archive-date=10 November 2019}}</ref>

ASB launched pago in November 2006, which is an electronic payment service that allows anyone with a New Zealand bank account to send cleared funds via mobile phone or the internet to another person or participating retailer in real-time.<ref name="About pago">{{cite web|url=https://www.pago.co.nz/home/about-pago.aspx |title=About pago |website=Pago.co.nz |access-date=31 July 2012 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730175454/https://www.pago.co.nz/home/about-pago.aspx |archive-date=30 July 2012 }}</ref> The technology has not succeeded in the way ASB hoped, with very little use and virtually no significant updates since 2010. ASB Securities, launched in 1999, remains the largest online broker in New Zealand in terms of trading volume and active customers.<ref name="ASB Securities Review" >{{cite web|url=https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/asb-securities.html |title=ASB Securities Review - What You Need to Know|website=moneyhub.co.nz |access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref>

The bank has found significant success by being the first to introduce innovative services and features to the New Zealand market.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}
ASB was the first bank in New Zealand to offer:
* [[internet banking]] ('''FastNet Classic''' in 1997)
* branches open seven days a week (1998)
* online share trading on both the Australian and New Zealand share-markets (via ASB Securities in 1999)
* banking via mobile phones ('''ASB Mobile''' in 1999)
* the ability for customers to stop receiving their paper statements (2003)
* banking via [[Personal digital assistant|PDA]]s and browser-based [[mobile banking]] (2006)
* automatic rounding of transactions where the difference is put into a savings account ('''Save the Change''' in 2010)
* [[Facebook]] friend payments via '''ASB Mobile''' [[iOS]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]] and [[Windows Phone]] apps (2012)
* a dedicated real estate app for iOS ('''ASB Property Guide''' in 2012)

==Advertising and sponsorship==
[[File:ASB logo 2012.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Previous ASB logo]]
[[File:ASB Bank (logo).svg|thumb|right|150px|Previous ASB logo]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:ASB 90s logo.png|thumb|right|150px|Previous ASB logo]] -->
ASB has become known for using well-known characters in its advertising. The bank had a series of highly successful, award-winning commercials with the [[Ira Goldstein]] character (played by American actor Steve Mellor), a bumbling American banker sent to New Zealand to find out "what makes that bank different". The ads were popular over an 11-year period. However, the campaign ended in 2010 as the bank moved to a new advertising agency from [[TBWA]]/Whybin.<ref name="ASB farewells Goldstein as 11-year ad campaign ends" >{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10675065 |title=ASB farewells Goldstein as 11-year ad campaign ends |access-date=30 July 2012 | work=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |date=21 September 2010}}</ref>

In October 2011 the bank introduced the Experience ASB campaign with new advertising agency [[Droga5]]. The campaign featured voice overs by English actor Dame [[Judi Dench]] and allowed potential customers to "test drive" the bank before joining.<ref name="Dame Judi Dench stars in new fully integrated 'Experience ASB' campaign via Droga5" >{{cite web|url=http://www.campaignbrief.co.nz/2011/10/dame-judi-dench-stars-in-new-f.html|title=Dame Judi Dench stars in new fully integrated 'Experience ASB' campaign via Droga5|website=Campaignbrief.co.nz |date=6 October 2011 |access-date=20 February 2013}}</ref>

In July 2012 ASB left Droga5 for [[Saatchi & Saatchi]].<ref name="Shock for Droga5 in NZ as founding client ASB makes switch to Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand" >{{cite web|url=http://www.campaignbrief.com/2012/04/shock-for-droga5-in-nz-as-foun.html|title=Shock for Droga5 in NZ as founding client ASB makes switch to Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand|website=Campaignbrief.co.nz  |date=5 April 2012 |access-date=20 February 2013}}</ref> In February 2013 ASB launched a new advertising campaign featuring [[Brian Blessed]] playing a fictionalised version of himself encouraging New Zealanders to be proud of their achievements whether big or small.<ref name="Dear ASB, who is Brian Blessed?" >{{cite web|url=http://blog.asb.co.nz/dear-asb-who-is-brian-blessed/|title=Who is Brian Blessed?|website=Blog.asb.co.nz|access-date=20 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219015809/http://blog.asb.co.nz/dear-asb-who-is-brian-blessed/|archive-date=19 February 2013|url-status = dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The bank also supports the ASB Community Trust, which was formed in 1988 with an endowment from the sale of ASB to Australia's [[Commonwealth Bank]]. The Trust has distributed more than $745 million since 1988, mostly giving grants to the arts, sport, recreation, environment, heritage, health and social services areas, as well as funding capital projects in local communities around New Zealand.<ref name="About ASB Community Trust" >{{cite web|url=http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/about-us/|title=About ASB Community Trust|website=Asbcommunitytrust.org.nz|access-date=30 July 2012|archive-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317000426/http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/about-us|url-status=dead}}</ref>

ASB is the corporate sponsor and partner for a number of high-profile New Zealand organisations and events such as: 
* [[Hato Hone St John|Hato Hone St John New Zealand]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[Youthline]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[New Zealand Red Cross]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [https://www.asbclassic.co.nz/ ASB Classic]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team|Black Ferns]], [[New Zealand national rugby union team|All Blacks]] and [[Rugby Aupiki]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[Polyfest|ASB Polyfest]] - A four-day event in [[Auckland]] featuring over 9,000 student performers celebrating the culture of the Pacific and attracting an audience of over 90,000.<ref name="ASB Bank - Arts" >{{cite web|url=https://www.asb.co.nz/story20414.aspx|title=ASB Bank - Arts|website=Asb.co.nz|access-date=30 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209111405/https://www.asb.co.nz/story20414.aspx|archive-date=9 February 2013|url-status = dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
* Cyber Skills Aotearoa <ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [https://www.springboardtrust.org.nz/ Springboard Trust] <ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[New Zealand Falcons]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>

The bank is also a major sponsor of several event venues in New Zealand:

* [[ASB Tennis Centre]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [[ASB Theatre Marlborough]]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* [https://www.atc.co.nz/asb-waterfront-theatre-events ASB Auckland Waterfront Theatre]<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>
* ASB Atrium and ASB Careers Centre at the [[University of Auckland]]'s [[Owen G. Glenn Building]], home of the university's Business School.<ref>https://www.asb.co.nz/community</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of banks]]
*[[List of banks in New Zealand]]
*[[Sovereign Limited|Sovereign]]
*[[Commonwealth Bank]]
*[[ASB Classic (disambiguation)|ASB Classic]]
*[[New Zealand Football Championship|ASB Premiership]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Subject bar|auto=y|d=y|Banks|Companies}}
{{Commonwealth Bank}}
{{NZ Banks}}
{{COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Companies based in Auckland]]
[[Category:Banks established in 1847]]
[[Category:Banks of New Zealand]]
[[Category:New Zealand companies established in 1847]]
[[Category:Commonwealth Bank]]
[[Category:New Zealand subsidiaries of foreign companies]]