GE Money's New Zealand boss Greg White is an Australian executive returning to a big job at head office positive about his time in this country and his company's future here.His new role is managing director of retailer solutions at GE Capital Australia a
GE Money's New Zealand boss Greg White is an Australian executive returning to a big job at head office positive about his time in this country and his company's future here.
His new role is managing director of retailer solutions at GE Capital Australia and New Zealand.
From a personal perspective, Mr White, 44, said his family had absolutely loved living in New Zealand.
"It is a wonderful country and a wonderful place to bring up a family," he said.
From a business perspective, running GE Money in New Zealand for three-and-a-half years was a challenge. The company withdrew from home lending and vehicle financing and closed its branch distribution channel. It now employed 620 people, down from 820.
Mr White has previously said that the company was eyeing the deposit taking and credit card markets in New Zealand and he reiterated that today.
"We look out over the next few years and I believe that there are some very exciting opportunities for this organisation to really shake up some parts of financial services in New Zealand," Mr White told NZPA.
"We've got some very big opportunities that we've been working on for a while that I think will make a big impact over the next 12 to 18 months."
GE Money had stayed out of the credit card market while regulators were tackling the issue of card interchange fees. That issue had now been resolved in New Zealand.
"That opens up the opportunities for new competition," he said.
GE Money is a credit card issuer in other markets, including in Australia.
GE Money is not a bank in New Zealand and does not want to be one.
The non-bank sector it operates in is facing new regulations after previously operating with little regulation.
He was not surprised that the Government and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had moved to regulate the sector.
"We are not in any way afraid of it. In fact, we are broadly supportive of that direction," he said.
"To be honest, to give consumers a better view of the risk-reward trade-offs when they are making investment decisions, I think, is very healthy."
The non-bank sector in New Zealand was evolving.
"We know what we are doing and we feel very confident as to what the next couple of years will bring for GE Money in New Zealand," Mr White said.
GE Money had weathered the global financial crisis well in New Zealand.
"We've had to take some pretty difficult decisions but the business is in very good shape," he said.
GE Capital is expected to announce a new managing director, GE Money, New Zealand shortly.
GE Money is the largest non-bank provider of personal loans with a 17 percent segment share here. It has partnerships to provide consumer finance to both Kiwibank and Trademe customers.
