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Speaker 1: And it's back to the future in a way, at

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Speaker 1: the very least for ben Zed. The bank today announced

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Speaker 1: that all of its branches nationwide will open at least

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Speaker 1: five days a week by April of next year. The

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Speaker 1: bank says the move is a response to growing customer

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Speaker 1: demand for more face to face interactions and ben Z

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Speaker 1: chief executive Dan Huggins is with us now.

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Speaker 2: Good day, Dan, good Jack, Thanks for having me nus

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Speaker 2: to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and nice to be speaking with you. Talk us

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Speaker 1: through the changes. What are you guys doing.

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Speaker 2: Well, Look, we've we've got about twenty three branches throughout

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Speaker 2: the country that previously have been on reduced days, and

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Speaker 2: we've heard from our customers, particularly small businesses, that they

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Speaker 2: want to talk to our people more often. So we're

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Speaker 2: opening the month for five days a week.

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Speaker 1: So talk us through why they were working reduced days

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Speaker 1: or reduced hours in the first place.

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Speaker 2: You know, look, probably four or five years ago, we

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Speaker 2: saw that there was quite a big shift of demand

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Speaker 2: towards online, towards digital and coll center. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we moved in response to that to put more people

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Speaker 2: into those centers to support custostomers. Now we've taken the feedback,

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Speaker 2: and we are putting more people into our branches so

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Speaker 2: we can also open those whilst sustaining the services and

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Speaker 2: digital and those course centers.

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Speaker 1: So you'll be sustaining those services. Does that mean that

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Speaker 1: you'll be keeping the resource for the digital services and

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Speaker 1: the cour centers the same as it has been.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, So there's there's the resources that are

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Speaker 2: in those areas, all of our people that are certain

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Speaker 2: people in the cour centers, and the hundreds of people

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Speaker 2: we've got supporting digital they all stay, and then we're

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Speaker 2: putting more people into the branches to get them open.

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Speaker 1: And so why do you think why do you think

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Speaker 1: attitudes have changed just because at the end of the

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Speaker 1: pandemic people went back to wanting face to face interactions.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a little bit of that. There's there's also

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Speaker 2: we've been growing the banks, we've got more customers, and also,

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Speaker 2: you know, there are other things happening. There's a bit

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Speaker 2: more scams to want a bit more face to face contact.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's certainly been a change in interest rates.

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Speaker 2: So with mortgages actually that that face to face conversation

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Speaker 2: is very very helpful for people.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting. So what are the sort of main

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Speaker 1: things that people are actually coming into for those those

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Speaker 1: personal interactions. Is it is it stuff around mortgages for the.

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Speaker 2: For the personal side of you, it's things around mortgages

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Speaker 2: and help with transactional accounts to cash flow management and

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Speaker 2: there on the small business side, you know, it's how

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Speaker 2: do I grow my business? How do I manage cash flows? Again?

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Speaker 1: And what is the kind of sense that you are

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Speaker 1: getting from around those branches around the country as to

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Speaker 1: as to how people are feeling in this economic moment.

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Speaker 2: Look, it's it's hard. I think that's that's the message

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Speaker 2: that we're seeing from customers. I think many people are

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Speaker 2: getting by, but they're having to make really tough decisions

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Speaker 2: about how they manage their cash flow so that they

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Speaker 2: can so that they can get through. But it's certainly

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Speaker 2: pretty challenging out there for everyone.

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Speaker 1: Do you see anything to feel kind of positive or

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Speaker 1: optimistic about on the horizon?

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean, we're certainly on over the medium term,

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Speaker 2: really optimistic about New Zealand. We've got amazing people who

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Speaker 2: are super innovative, great businesses, So you know, over over

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Speaker 2: the medium term we've got huge comfort in New Zealand

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Speaker 2: and huge aspirations for KIWIS and how the economy will

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Speaker 2: compete globally and grow. But it's a difficult period of

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Speaker 2: adjustment as we're trying to get inflation down those into

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Speaker 2: that band and obviously interest rate to high and having

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Speaker 2: an impact on people throughout it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really tricky. So it's a staggered transition for

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Speaker 1: your branches around the country. They're going to be open

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Speaker 1: from nine point thirty until four, minimum of five days

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Speaker 1: a week, and you're going to be starting off with

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Speaker 1: some of your branches in Regional New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Right, that's right. Yeah, so there's seven branches throughout Regional

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. Some branches are open seven days a week,

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Speaker 2: so all the branches will be open at least five,

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Speaker 2: but there's obviously some throughout the country that are open seven.

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Speaker 2: We've said April and we'd like to have it done

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Speaker 2: next year, but we're going to try and do it

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Speaker 2: much faster than that. It just all depends on hiring

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Speaker 2: people and chaining them up, so that's the timing thing there,

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Speaker 2: but hopefully we'll get done a bit faster than that. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic, Hey, thanks so much, Dan, really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: That's Dan Huggins, who is the CEO of B and Z.

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