Government to take direct ownership of Kiwibank

The Government is borrowing $2.1 billion to buy Kiwibank’s parent company, Stuff reveals, to keep the bank in Kiwi ownership after two of its existing Crown-owned shareholders wanted out. ACC, which owned 25%, and NZ Post, which owned 53%, wanted to exit their investments. Kiwibank was set up 20 years ago at the behest of the late left-wing politician Jim Anderton, who believed the country should have its own national bank.