United Building Society
Encyclopedia
United Building Society was a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 building society
Building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...

, and later a registered retail bank known as United Banking Group.

United Building Society merged or purchased the operations of a number of smaller building societies including:
  • Canterbury Premier Building Society
  • Canterbury Terminating Building Society and Bank of Deposit Building Society
  • Bay of Plenty Co-operative Terminating Building Society
  • Bay of Plenty Permanent Building Society
  • Canterbury Building Building Society
  • Eastern Co-operative Terminating Building Society
  • General Co-operative Terminating Building Society
  • Hawkes Bay Mutual Permanent Building Society also known as Hawkes Bay Permanent Building Society
  • Lyttleton Premier Permanent Building Society
  • Marac
  • Metropolitan Permanent Building and Investment Society
  • New Zealand Co-operative Terminating Building Society
  • Northern Co-operative Building Building Society
  • Northern Co-operative Terminating Building Society
  • Northern United Building Society
  • Northern United Permanent Building Society
  • Permanent Building Society of Invercargill
  • Premier Building Loan and Investment Society of Lyttleton
  • The Equitable Permanent Building Society
  • United Building Society of Hawkes Bay
  • Waipukurau Permanent Investment Building Society
  • Wellington Permanent Building Society


By 1990 the United Building Society also operated a chain of real estate agents, United Realty.

On 29 June 1990 United Building Society of New Zealand transformed itself into a limited liability company and was renamed United Banking Group Limited. The new company was registered as a bank with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
Reserve Bank of New Zealand
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is the central bank of New Zealand and is constituted under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989. The Governor of the Reserve Bank is responsible for New Zealand's currency and operating monetary policy. The Bank's current Governor is Dr. Alan Bollard...

 and was purchased by the State Bank of South Australia
State Bank of South Australia
The State Bank of South Australia was a bank owned by the Government of South Australia. Its collapse in 1991 was a major political event in South Australia...

 for NZ$150 million. The Auditor-General of South Australia states that the price was represented the total amount of capital in United Banking Group. At the time the Building Society was engaged in mortgage and commercial lending, real estate broking (United Realty), retirement village development (United Lifecare), insurance, as well as sharebroking (United Sharebrokers) and was reportedly trading unprofitably.

On 13 December 1990 United Banking Group Limited changed its name to United Bank Ltd and updated its registration with The Reserve Bank.

The State Bank of Australia had expected to take advantage of a transaction that was to involve no net investment (the purchase price was to be immediately returned after purchase through a capital return) and the deregulation of the banking industry which would allow United to launch a full range of retail banking products including checking accounts. The expected performance of the new bank did not eventuate with delays in launching new products, lower than expected banking profits and significant losses accrued from United subsidiary activities.

In 1992 the building society was sold to the Countrywide Building Society
Countrywide Bank (New Zealand)
Countrywide Bank was a Reserve Bank-registered retail bank operating throughout New Zealand. It was created from Countrywide Building Society, which itself emerged from the original Auckland Co-operative Terminating Building Society created in March 1897....

. At the time of sale the bank was considered a non-performing asset having reported a loss of $123.3M in 1991.

The bank's registration was relinquished on 16 May 1994.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK