MEDIA RELEASE
17 December 2010
SBS Bank Hamilton celebrates 10 years
Hamilton resident Ken Wyatt has a long-standing family history with SBS Bank – he’s dated it back as far as the 1920’s
when his family took out a mortgage with SBS to purchase the house of well-known New Zealand author Dan Davin, in
Invercargill.
Born and bred in Greenhills, in the deep south near Bluff, Mr Wyatt left Southland in the 1970s but he has never let his
strong family connection with SBS wane. He came back on board with SBS when the Automobile Association, in Hamilton,
acted as an agent for SBS services and products in 1998 and he was the first person through the doors when SBS Bank
opened its Hamilton branch 10 years ago.
Today (Friday 17th) Mr Wyatt was back at SBS Bank Hamilton to share some 10th birthday wishes with a cake for the team and the chance to
reminisce about the success of SBS Bank.
“I’m a believer that if you’re happy in life with the things you’ve got then you tell everyone about it and that’s why
I’m always telling everyone about SBS Bank. I was the first one to make a transaction when the Hamilton branch opened in
2000 and I even found out when the Tauranga branch opened in 2006 and raced across to celebrate their opening with them
as well.
“The Wyatt family have a great history with Southland and SBS Bank and I love sussing things out and chasing the roots
and history that we have,” Mr Wyatt said.
SBS Bank Hamilton manager Rod Fox said the team at SBS Bank Hamilton were always eager to spread some Christmas cheer
with their customers at this time of the year and it was great to have a double reason to celebrate this month as they
marked their 10th anniversary in the Waikato.
The Hamilton branch was the first and only North Island branch to be opened by the SBS Bank on 18 December 2000. It
remained the only North Island branch until SBS Bank Tauranga opened in 2006. This year the North Island network doubled
with the addition of two HBS Bank branches in Hastings and Napier following the merger of HBS with SBS Bank on 31
August.
Mr Fox said like their Waikato branch, SBS Bank had come a long way in 10 years.
“Back in 2000, SBS’s total assets hit $900 million and we had an operating surplus of $11 million. Since then we’ve
introduced full transactional banking, an extensive range of new products and services, more than doubled the network
with the addition of a further 10 branches throughout the country, taking our total number of branches to 17, and we’ve
attained bank registration.
“This year SBS Bank achieved another solid performance in another particularly challenging year with total assets up $87
million to $2.63 billion and an operating surplus of $19.4 million. It’s a great result for New Zealand’s only
customer-owned bank – one that has retained its structure of a building society just as it was founded in Invercargill
141 years ago.”
Mr Fox said they had several of their very first customers visiting the branch with well wishes and gifts for their 10th
anniversary.
“It’s been wonderful to reminisce about the many positive developments and events that we’ve all experienced at SBS Bank
during the past decade and we’re looking forward to another fantastic 10 years of providing our customers with
exceptional service and supporting our community here in the Waikato.”
ENDS