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Highlights
- NZ’s youth unemployment rate returned to pre-coronavirus levels over the year to the September quarter but was three times higher than the national average.
- Westpac signed a deal with AMP Limited on Wednesday to purchase a new budgeting app, MoneyBrilliant.
- ANZ opened registration for its digital banking service ANZ Plus on Wednesday, which will begin in early 2022.
The unemployment rate for young Kiwis has fallen since the COVID-19 struck, taking it closer to pre-coronavirus levels, as per Stats NZ data released on 2 December. However, the rate is still 3 times the national average.
The unemployment rate for people in the age group of 15-24 was 9.6% in the September quarter, dropping from 13.2% in the same period in 2020 but 3 times more than NZ’s unemployment rate of 3.2%.
Amid this backdrop, let’s have a look at how these 2 NZ Banks are doing.
Image source: © 2021 Kalkine Media, Data source- EODHD/Others
Westpac Banking Corporation Limited (NZX:WBC, ASX:WBC)
Westpac has inked a deal with AMP Limited to buy its money management application, MoneyBrilliant. The app assists users in managing money by providing practical perceptions and presenting their financial accounts in one place. The technology will be integrated into WBC’s own app.
The acquisition is expected to be finished by December 2021.
Westpac also noted APRA’s new loss-absorbing capacity requirements. The regulation requires D-SIBs i.e. domestic systemically important banks to enhance their total capital by an additional 1.5% of risk weighted assets (RWA) by January 2026.
This extra requirement will increase WBC’s total capacity by A$6.5billion. WBC informed that it was well placed to meet this requirement by 1 January 2026.
On 9 December, at the time of writing, WBC was trading at $22.25, down 0.54%.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (NZX:ANZ,ASX:ANZ)
ANZ announced on Wednesday that customers could then register for ANZ Plus, a new digital banking service app that will become operational from early 2022. ANZ Plus will begin with savings and transaction products, while other features will be added later gradually.
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APRA has lately worked to increase flexibility by increasing capital buffers, as well as achieving a variety of other goals such as risk sensitivity, competition, transparency, and fairness. The changes will become effective from 1 January 2023.
However, APRA stated that the new structure did not need banks to raise extra capital because they had already satisfied the undeniably robust requirements set by APRA in 2017.
DO READ: Which are 5 NZX financial stocks to explore before 2021 ends?
On 9 December, at the time of writing, ANZ was trading at $29.11, up 0.38%.
Bottom Line
Stats NZ results showed that Youth in NZ is usually unemployed for shorter periods while older people are more likely to stay unemployed for longer periods.
(NOTE: Currency is reported in NZ Dollar unless stated otherwise)