News

BNZ to invest in 'multi-hundred million' core upgrade

May 14, 2013

In a project expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require three to five years to complete, BNZ is upgrading its current 30–40-year-old core banking system to keep up with a new digital banking era.

CEO Andrew Thornburn told the business publication Interest that the current systems are working but maintainance costs are rising and the number of technicians familiar with the older system is declining.

"So we have to take the step at some point to replace them and we've done a lot of work in the last 18 months to access how we're going to do that, how much it will cost, how we phase it in over time," Thornburn said.

BNZ is not alone in choosing to modernize their core system. Both Kiwibank and Westpac are also considering whether to upgrade or replace their platforms, Interest said. 

Thornburn said the project would represent "a multi-hundred million dollar investment" for BNZ. Last year, ANZ New Zealand incurred costs of roughly NZ$372 million ($304.4 million) to move to the National Bank core platform.

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