Social Credit calls on Kiwibank to lower its borrowing rates, especially for first-time buyers and small and medium-sized businesses.
As a bank owned by all New Zealanders, Kiwibank has a responsibility to consider social factors rather than just business.
The vast majority of Kiwibank’s customers are retirees, individuals and small businesses, so again, those who can least afford it are the hardest hit.
In the way Kiwibank currently operates, its shareholders, the New Zealand Superfund, the Accident Compensation Corporation and NZ Post, effectively require Kiwibank clients to pay their own superannuation, accident compensation, and government services through through NZ Post dividends.
Unlike the four Australian banks that took $ 6 billion out of Kiwi pockets last year and exported the majority of it to foreign shareholders, Kiwibank shareholders shouldn’t expect similar profits.
While the Superfund and ACC should seek good returns on the money they have to invest, that investment should be in shares of productive New Zealand companies, allowing them to access development finance at lower cost. cost than those available by bank loan.
Much like other commercial banks do, Kiwibank creates the money it lends to borrowers out of thin air, by simply entering numbers on a computer keyboard. He doesn’t lend the money people here have deposited with him, so he could easily lower his borrowing rates.