ASB is reintroducing school banking a decade after it axed the scheme.

The programme, which started in 1926, proved a powerful tool in retaining customers, with many staying with the bank through high school, university and into their working career.

But ASB dropped it in the late 1990s due to the cost of bank staff having to process the tiny contributions.

This month it has been reinstated, with 300 schools already expressing interest in joining the scheme.

ASB general manager branch and third party banking Shaun Drylie says ASB is already the bank for three out of every four schools in Northland and Auckland and one in every three schools nationally.

“However, our original school banking programme had simply grown too resource intensive for both schools and us, so it was discontinued in the 1990s. But with the increasing evidence of declining financial literacy, ASB wanted to reinvigorate its offering to school children,” he says.

A survey conducted by ASB of children aged 8-12 found that 75% of those surveyed either don’t have a bank account or rarely use it; 13% couldn’t name one financial institution, with over half only able to name one; and many think money comes “from a hole in the wall”.

The new school banking programme is initially in primary schools and one intermediate school with plans to expand its presence in intermediate schools and secondary schools as it progresses.

ASB introduced school banking in 1926, when the average deposit was 2-3 pence.

Since it resumed school banking this month, the average deposit has been $5.

Kashin the elephant, which was introduced as an “ASB icon” in 1973 when the bank sponsored Kashin to Auckland Zoo from Thailand, still features heavily in the merchandising that school banking participants receive.

Kashin still resides at Auckland Zoo and recently turned 40.