Bank workers' union Finsec is calling on the New Zealand government to toughen up on Australian-owned banks that paid huge dividends to their parent companies last year.
In the financial year ending 2009 the combined profits of Australian-owned banks - ANZ, Westpac, BNZ and ASB - was $NZ790 million ($A630.86 million) but they paid out over $NZ1.7 billion ($A1.36 billion) in dividends, or 222.8 per cent of their profits, Finsec said.
"In a year in which bank staff were made redundant, jobs were sent offshore, mortgagee sales rose, some staff had their wages frozen, branches were closed and all the banks received taxpayer support through the government guarantee schemes, it is totally
galling to see this huge amount of money being shipped back to shareholders," Finsec spokesman Andrew Campbell said.
"It is clear in our view that the banks have done much to protect their shareholders from the recession while doing nowhere near enough to assist getting the New Zealand economy back into growth by doing such things as keeping people in jobs and paying wage increases to all staff.
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"The government needs to toughen its regulation of the banks to include social responsibility and national interest measures to stop this immoral preference towards overseas shareholders over the local economy and staff.
"Internationally, regulators are getting tougher on bad banking practices. It is unthinkable for our government to do nothing while these profitable companies continue to behave with such disregard for the local economy," Mr Campbell added.
Duty Minister Pansy Wong did not respond to requests for comment.
