Stuart Smith: Parliament Finance Committee chair on ANZ CEO Antonia Watson being grilled in banking sector competition inquiry

The chair of Parliament's Finance Committee is perplexed ANZ's head wasn't across the details of her pay packet. 

Chief executive Antonia Watson was among the banking heads grilled by MPs this morning, under pressure to justify a $2 billion profit during tough times for Kiwis.

She says she's paid $2.5 million, but would need to give her total remuneration including share options and bonuses, in writing. 

Stuart Smith says he wonders about that.

"I'd be very surprised if a senior bank executive wasn't interest in - to the dollar - in how much they're paid."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather due for cl so. Parliament's Big Banking inquiry kicked
off today. The first to face the grilling was the
A and Z boss Antonia Watson. Stuart Smith is a
National and P. He's also the chair of the Finance
and Expenditure Committee running this particular inquiry and is with
us now. He Stewart, Oh, good evening, Stuart Fair to say,
you guys didn't actually get anything much out of this.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, I don't think we really expected to get too much.
I think was interesting what wasn't answered and some of
the you know, the answers that we got were essentially
not accepting what the Commerce Commission had found in their
market study. And it was really interesting actually when you
start looking at the numbers that they found. In fact

(00:42):
that our banks are our big banks are very profitable
on a world stage.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah, but the banks counter that by saying, actually, a
twelve percent return on investment is pretty middle of the road.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, the A and D has a twelve point six
percent return on equity. I think that's quite high, and
particularly considering it's relatively low risk. I mean, our banks
haven't lost money in twenty nine years, so they've had
a pretty low risk model, and they've not invested a
lot in innovation and as the market study shows, is

(01:17):
very little in the way of competition. But that's what
we haven't got any conclusions yet that we're trying to
dig into all of that and get some answers.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Okay, So what did you actually get out of today?
Was it worth making Antonia fly down?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Absolutely? Absolutely? New Zealanders need answers. New Zealanders who are
paying their mortgages every day or every week, they need
to none.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
But what answers did you get out of Antonia and
the chair that we haven't got for you in an
interview on the phone.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, I don't think you get the real answers unless
you get them in front of Select Committee. We're going
to get more because we've got been questions that are
going to them. We will find out what she got
paid last year. She didn't answer that question.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
That's fair enough, though, Stuart, isn't it. I mean, if
you're earning two point five million plus, you've stopped counting,
haven't you.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'd be very surprised if a bank, a senior bank
executive wasn't interested in to the dollar and how much
they paid.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Really Okay, Stuart, thank you, I appreciate it. Well, good
luck with the rest of the banking inquiry. I'm looking
forward to the juicy stuff. That's Stuart Smith, National MP
and Chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee. For more
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