NAB wrap quits New Zealand
National Australia Bank’s (NAB) wholly-owned subsidiary Ausmaq has pulled out of New Zealand following the loss of a $500 million mandate from sister company Bank of New Zealand last year.
Ausmaq general manager business development Chris Donohoe confirmed the wholesale fund administrator and wrap account service provider had closed its Wellington office and withdrawn from New Zealand due to the loss of the “significant piece of business”.
Donohoe said the company had started to wrap up its New Zealand operation in August last year.
“It was a very orderly wind down, we moved from seven or eight [staff] at peak … as we wound down the business we reduced those numbers accordingly,” he said.
He confirmed that one business development manager, Michelle Roberts, had transferred to Australia.
Donohoe said although the company now had no fiscal presence in New Zealand, it had not turned its back on the market.
“We do have expertise with regard to New Zealand, so we will continue to watch conditions over there. We are always looking for opportunities,” he said.
Ausmaq has been in operation since 1995 and has around $2.7 billion under administration with clients in Australia.
Donohoe said the closure would have no impact on the Australian business, which was run separately from the New Zealand operations.
He said the withdrawal was also unrelated to NAB’s wider strategy to rebuild its Australian business. In September, the bank committed $1.8 billion towards the rebuilding process.
At that time, NAB chief executive Ahmed Fahour said the bank was halfway through a three-year turnaround, which began in 2004 following several years of poor performance and the foreign exchange desk rogue trading scandal.
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