Kiwis should make a New Year’s resolution to move their bank accounts to Kiwibank, or one of the other wholly owned New Zealand banks, said Social Credit Leader Chris Leitch.

New Year is the ideal time for Kiwis to display some patriotism, and get themselves out of the clutches of the overseas owned banks.

The big four Aussie owned banks dragged over $6 billion in profit out of the back pockets of Kiwis last year – four times more profit than the 10 largest companies on the NZ Stock Exchange.

Those profits have increased substantially over the past few years, proving the banks are huge money-making machines and they ship most of their profits offshore to their Australian and US owners creating a major drain on the New Zealand economy.

Most of the profit was made by the banks charging fees and interest on money they didn’t have - money created on their computer keyboards at the time of the loan.

The idea that banks lend out money people deposit with them is a myth, a fact confirmed by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013 in a recent speech “When banks extend loans to their customers they create money by crediting their customer’s account”.

Had even a quarter of that massive profit gone instead to Kiwibank, through Kiwis having moved their accounts last year, dividends to the Government would have provided over $1.5 billion dollars extra for health care and education.

The government should take a lead by changing its banking services from Westpac to Kiwibank – a move that would save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If it had any backbone it would also instruct Kiwibank to marginally lower their lending rates and slightly increase their deposit rates as an incentive for people to make the switch.

This in turn would provide some real competition for the Aussie banks and benefit all New Zealanders through better borrowing and deposit rates.

That extra money in people’s pockets would further boost the New Zealand economy.

It’s time Kiwis stopped propping up the Aussie economy and supported their own by switching their accounts this New Year.

© Scoop Media