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The story
ASB was established in 1847 as the Auckland Savings Bank. The first meeting was held in the store of Campbell and Brown, and was attended by John Logan Campbell, Dr John Johnson, Rev Thomas Buddle, John Jermyn Symonds, John MacDougall, David Graham (a brother of Robert Graham), Robert Appleyard Fitzgerald, Thomas Forsaith, John Israel Montefiore, James Dilworth, Alexander Kennedy, and William Smellie Graham.During the 1980s the association of savings banks amalgamated the local savings banks throughout New Zealand with ASB at their head, and adopted the name, ASB Trust Bank. In 1986, ASB withdrew from the Trust Bank and in 1987 became a full-fledged commercial bank under the name, ASB Bank. In 1988, the Government passed the Trustee Banks Restructuring Act, which enabled ASB to become a public company. In 1989, the owner of the bank, ASB Community Trust, sold 75% of the shares to Commonwealth Bank. In 1994, ASB purchased and amalgamated Westland Bank, another former savings bank, located on the South Island's west coast, which enabled it to operate on a truly national basis.
In 1999, ASB Group acquired Sovereign Limited, a life insurance company, and the retail stockbroking and fixed income operations of Warburg Dillon Read. In September 2017, ASB's parent, the Commonwealth Bank agreed to sell Sovereign to AIA Group, and the sale was completed on 2 July 2018, with the Sovereign brand continuing until 5 August 2019.
In 2000, Commonwealth Bank bought the remaining 25% of ASB's shares from the Trust. In 2005 the bank changed the ASB Bank brand to ASB to reflect the more integrated financial services provider that it had become.
In early July 2020, ASB announced that it would be closing nine branches while 25 branches would be moving to three day weeks due to a shift in demand for online services. The company will also hire 150 additional staff to provide specialist online support. In early October 2025, ASB Bank agreed to pay NZ$135.6 million to settle a lawsuit relating to alleged breaches of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
From Wikipedia’s article on ASB Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5