Our heritage and history
BNZ has been serving New Zealanders for more than 160 years.
Historic highlights
We’ve been part of the social and financial history in Aotearoa since our founding in 1861. In that time, we’ve seen the evolution from handwritten ledgers to the use of banking cards, ATMs, EFTPOS, and online banking. BNZ has led the way in many of these developments, being the first bank in New Zealand to introduce long term mortgages, travellers cheques, drive in banking, overnight electronic transactions, and Visa cards.
Art collection
Established during the 1980s by renowned art dealer Peter McLeavey, the BNZ art collection consists of a small selection of key works by artists such as Colin McCahon, Gordon Walters, Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe, Guy Ngan, and Gretchen Albrecht.
Archives
As we approached our centenary in 1961, we recognised the need to gather and protect the records of people, community, and our banking legacy – and the opportunity to share these vast resources with the community. Our archives offer a window into Aotearoa’s financial and social history, bank architecture, knowledge and stories from our people.
Contact our heritage team
Whether you want to access our archives for research purposes, donate items, or something else, contact our team.
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Get behind the scenes insights and extra updates from the archives.