Private company

BankDirect

Defunct banking division of ABS Bank1

BankDirect was a direct banking division of the Australian owned ASB bank, which provided internet and phone based banking in New Zealand. It was formed in 1997 as a "virtual" bank without any physical branches, and operated for twenty years. BankDirect's customer base began to shrink in the 2010s.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1997Founded1
  • Industryfinancial services1
  • HeadquartersNew Zealand1

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BankDirect was a direct banking division of the Australian owned ASB bank, which provided internet and phone based banking in New Zealand. It was formed in 1997 as a "virtual" bank without any physical branches, and operated for twenty years.2

Corporate structure

BankDirect is part of a group headed by ASB Bank. 3 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • ASB Bank Auckland, New Zealand
    • BankDirect New Zealand
    • ASB Securities Limited Subsidiary · Auckland, New Zealand

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

BankDirect was founded in October 1997, and was the first "virtual" bank to operate in New Zealand via Internet and phone without any physical branches. BankDirect used the leverage of not having physical branches to offer lower home loan interest rates and higher interest rates on their savings accounts, however this rate was adjusted in line with ASB's main services in 2010.

In 2012, ASB reported the service had 30,000 customers. By 2017, that number had dropped to an estimated 10,000. ASB cited online banking as one cause for a drop in customers, and announced it would migrate remaining customers to its other services.

From Wikipedia’s article on BankDirect, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 2017Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1997Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3