as nzx hbl industry financial services founded 5 january 2011 2011 01 05 headquarters auckland new zealand area served new zealand products banking insurance financial services property total assets 2.34 billion number of employees more than 350 2012 1 website www.heartland.co.nz heartland bank formerly heartland building society is a new zealand based bank that was created in 2011 through the merger of four financial organisations to obtain national coverage and obtained its banking licence in 2012 . 2 3 4 5 it provides retail banking services lending livestock and seasonal financing home and vehicle loans and insurance services and has a strong focus on the rural farming sector . heartland building society became a registered bank on 17 december 2012 but its component parts had a long history in new zealand with roots stretching back to 1875 . contents 1 history 1.1 predecessors 1.2 becoming a bank 2 branches 3 new markets 4 references 5 external links history edit predecessors edit in 1875 the ashburton permanent building & investment society was established which subsequently merged with smc building society and loan & building society . 6 together they became cbs canterbury . separately southern cross building society opened in auckland in 1923 it offered a similar range of financial services to its customers throughout the north island . in 1952 marac finance was established lending money to business to purchase commercial vehicles as the north shore rental van company . over the next 55 years it grew to provide financing lending and insurance services to businesses and individuals . leading stock and station companies williams & kettle wrightson pyne gould guinness and reid farmers which became pgg wrightson established pgg wrightson finance pwf in the 1940s . pwf provided financial services to its farming and rural clients . in late 2010 a plan was hatched to bring together these four separate financial institutions to create a financial company with national coverage across new zealand that had enough assets to become a bank . on 5 january 2011 cbs canterbury southern cross building society and marac finance limited combined to become one organisation and on 31 august 2011 the group acquired pgg wrightson finance . becoming a bank edit heartland was created from the merger of cbs canterbury canterbury building society southern cross marac and pgg wrightson finance . 7 the rationale for the merger was to create financial institution that had national coverage and enough assets and resources to get a full banking licence . on 12 december 2012 the reserve bank of new zealand announced that heartland building society has been registered as a bank and the organisation changed its name to heartland bank . in may 2013 ratings agency standard & poor s 8 placed heartland bank together with seven other small new zealand financial institutions on a credit rating downgrade watch citing potential risks from overexposure to new zealand s highly inflated housing market . in october 2014 heartland s rating was raised to bbb outlook stable in october 2014 . 9 in october 2015 fitch another credit ratings agency confirmed heartland with a rating of bbb outlook stable noting core asset quality to remain sound benefiting from continued improvement in underwriting standards and good economic conditions . 10 branches edit heartland bank s head office is located in the auckland suburb of newmarket and the bank has over 15 branches located throughout new zealand . new markets edit in february 2014 heartland has moved into the reverse mortgage or home equity release market offering home owners usually retired people the ability to borrow against the equity in their home without interest payments charged up front . 11 in september 2014 it moved into the peer to peer lending sector through its 10 % shareholding in harmoney limited . 12 references edit our people . retrieved 28 september 2012 . reserve bank confirms banking registration for building society heartland nz . interest.co.nz . 17 december 2012 . court approves heartland bank merger . stuff.co.nz . 16 december 2010 . heartland yet to consider finance arm . 24 september 2012 . heartland nz sees funding cost premium halve . interest.co.nz . 29 august 2012 . canterbury building society to merge with loan and building . the new zealand herald . 11 october 2007 . heartland bank gets final thumbs up from depositors . scoop . 10 december 2010 . small banks put on notice . otago daily times . 17 may 2013 . heartland s stronger asset quality earnings earn fitch upgrade . nz herald . 29 october 2014 . fitch affirms credit rating for heartland bank pdf press release . heartland bank . 16 october 2015 . meadows richard . heartland buys reverse mortgage firm . fairfax media . adams christopher 9 september 2014 . heartland buys into harmoney . nz herald . external links edit official website v t e building societies of new zealand canterbury building society general equity building society hastings building society heartland building society heretaunga building society international building & investment society kiwi deposit building society loan and building society manawatu permanent building society manchester unity building society nelson building society safe and sound building society southern cross building society southland building society the napier building society permanent wairarapa building society v t e banks of new zealand current banks anz asb bankdirect bank of new zealand the co operative bank heartland bank hsbc kiwibank rabobank rabodirect sbs bank tsb bank westpac italics in the above indicate domestic ownership former banks nationwide service post office savings bank trust bank countrywide bank national bank regional trustee banks bay of plenty savings bank canterbury savings bank eastern & central savings bank otago savings bank south canterbury savings bank southland savings bank waikato savings bank wanganui savings bank wellington savings bank westland savings bank retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title heartland bank & oldid 733742152 categories building societies of new zealandbanks of new zealandashburton new zealandhidden categories use new zealand english from september 2015all wikipedia articles written in new zealand englishuse dmy dates from september 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 august 2016 at 20 40 . text is available under the creative 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