ANZ joins rank of banks donating to cyclone relief charities with $3 million pledge

ANZ has become the latest big bank to dip into shareholder funds to make a donation to cyclone relief charities.

The bank will donate $3 million to communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, said chief executive Antonia Watson.

The move follows $5m of cyclone-related donations from ASB and $250,000 from the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ).

“Right now there are communities that need our support as they deal with the overwhelming devastation they are facing to their homes, properties and businesses,” Watson said.

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ANZ’s donation would be split, with $1m going to support businesses and communities through local relief funds and iwi organisations in affected regions, she said.

Another $1m would go to support horticulture and agriculture sector groups, with the remaining $1m being paid as a donation to the New Zealand Red Cross Disaster Fund through a special fundraising event with NZ Cricket.

ASB has pledged to give away up to $5m including $3m in $2000 grants to people whose homes have been red or yellow-stickered, and people whose small businesses have been hard-hit, and donated $2m to the Red Cross New Zealand Disaster Fund.

But the banks’ cyclone relief efforts have been slammed as “stingy” by Sam Stubbs, chief executive of KiwiSaver provider Simplicity, which has donated $300,000 to cyclone relief work.

Stubbs has challenged the big banks to donate 1% of their profits to cyclone relief.

The $300,000 Simplicity had donated to cyclone relief through food banks represented about 1.5% of its revenue, he said.

When Coromandel was hit by Cyclone Hale in early January, followed by flooding in Auckland, the banks responded with emergency relief packages offering customers things like emergency overdrafts, and the ability to temporarily reduce or defer mortgage repayments.

But the sheer scale of the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle has prompted banks to go further than they did with the relief packages they offered during the fear-filled early days of Covid lockdowns, when many worried they would lose their jobs.

Last week Westpac started a cascade of banks moving to offer zero-interest overdrafts to customers hit hard by the flooding and cyclones. TSB was also offering $500 interest-free emergency loans to cyclone victims.

That was followed by Kiwibank, ANZ, and BNZ all following suit in the following days, with ASB offering 0.01% emergency overdrafts, as its systems were unable to cope with zero interest.