Auckland Savings Bank

ASB Bank

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Banking Financial services Investment services
Founded	5 June 1847; 170 years ago (5 June 1847) (as Auckland Savings Bank)
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Area served	New Zealand
Key people	Barbara Chapman, CEO
Products	Finance and insurance Consumer Banking Corporate Banking Investment Banking Investment Management Mortgages Credit Cards
Revenue	NZ$1.607 billion (2011)
Total assets	NZ$63.5 billion (2012)
Number of employees	4907
Parent	Commonwealth Bank
Subsidiaries	Sovereign Limited BankDirect
Website	www.asb.co.nz

ASB Bank, commonly stylised as ASB, is a bank owned by Commonwealth Bank, operating in New Zealand. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, business and rural banking, funds management, as well as insurance through its Sovereign arm, and investment and securities services through its ASB Group Investments and ASB Securities arms. ASB also operates BankDirect, a branchless banking service that provides service via phone, Internet, EFTPOS and ATMs only.

ASB began in 1847 as the Auckland Savings Bank. The first meeting was held in the store of Campbell and Brown, and was attended by Logan Campbell, Dr John Johnson, Rev Thomas Buddle, John Jermyn Symonds, John MacDougall, David Graham (a brother of Robert Graham), Robert Appleyard Fitzgerald,Thomas Forsaith, John Israel Montefiore, James Dilworth, Alexander Kennedy, and William Smellie Graham.

During the 1980s the association of savings banks amalgamated the local savings banks throughout New Zealand with ASB at their head, and adopted the name, ASB Trust Bank. In 1986, ASB withdrew from the Trust Bank and in 1987 became a full-fledged commercial bank under the name, ASB Bank. In 1988, the Government passed the Trustee Banks Restructuring Act, which enabled ASB to become a public company. In 1989, the owner of the bank, ASB Community Trust, sold 75% of the shares to Commonwealth Bank. In 1994, ASB purchased and amalgamated Westland Bank, another former savings bank, located on the South Island's west coast, which enabled it to operate on a truly national basis. In 1999, ASB Group acquired Sovereign Limited, a life insurance company, and the retail stockbroking and fixed income operations of Warburg Dillon Read. In 2000, Commonwealth Bank bought the remaining 25% of ASB's shares from the Trust. In 2005 the bank changed the ASB Bank brand to ASB to reflect the more integrated financial services provider that it had become.