Joe Hendren: BNZ and Westpac worst transnational corporations in NZ in 2005

Congratulations to the Bank of New Zealand and Westpac Banking Corporation for being joint winners of the 2005 Roger Award - assessed by an eminent panel of judges as being the worst transnational corporations operating in New Zealand in 2005.

"The BNZ and Westpac are the Roger Award's first co-winners. They won because of tax avoidance, profiteering, bullying of the Government and banking authorities, blatant attempts to lure Kiwis into debt, and treatment of their workers. To quote the Judges' Report: "…many of the practices they have adopted also apply to the other two large Australian-owned banks ASB and ANZ– and had they also been nominated then the likelihood is that all four would have been joint winners. Together these banks constitute a '‘gang of four'’ wielding huge power and influence over the NZ economy and operating solely in their own interests rather than that of their accountholders, employees and the wider community"”

Third Place: Toll Holdings
Forth Place: Telecom
Special Award for the Protection of Profit and Privilege at the Expense of Public Health: Guardian Healthcare, British American Tobacco and Merck, Sharp and Dohme.

Judges: John Minto, Laila Harre, Mary-Ellen O'Connor and Marie Leadbeater. The judges statement can be read here.

For more reasons why the banks won the Roger Award this year, see the Roger Report (written by me) and the Sue Newberry's Financial Analysis.

The Roger just made Nightline. Apparently the banks have no comment to make...

Tags: Politics, New Zealand, Corporates, Westpac, BNZ

Labels: banks, corporations, Telecom

2 Comments:

At 8:37 pm, Foggy in Nelson said...: I had a recruitment consultant try to put me forward for a job with Westpac. Said no. Thankfully!
At 11:26 pm, Joe Hendren said...: Maria,

I'm glad you said no :)

BNZ and Westpac seem to be the two worst banks to work for. I found a wonderful quote from a westpac boss saying they are "keen to take advantage of NZ low wages". Not surprisingly, westpac pay lower than the other major banks.

I hope some of the coverage of the Roger encourages the banks to start treating their staff better.

BNZ and Westpac are the only two banks to give their staff a greater bonus incentive to sell debt than they do to sell savings. So they force their staff to give customers the hard sell on debt. Yuck!