ANZ (Fiji)

ANZ is one of the largest banks in Fiji and has about a 40% market share.

ANZ bank at Sigatoka, Fiji

History

Investors from Auckland established the Fiji Banking and Commercial Trading Company Limited in 1873. However, the bank's owners sold it in 1876 to the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ). Union Bank of Australia established a branch in 1880, but closed it in 1895. In 1951 Union Bank’s successor, ANZ, returned to Fiji with a representative office that it upgraded to a branch. In 1985 ANZ acquired Barclays Bank’s operations, which Barclays had established in 1973. Then in 1990 ANZ acquired BNZ’s operations. Lastly, in 2001 ANZ bought Bank of Hawaii’s (Bankoh) three branches; Bankoh had entered in 1993.

Sources

• Butlin, S. J. 1961. Australia and New Zealand Bank: The Bank of Australasia and the Union Bank of Australia Limited, 1828-1951. London: Longmans, p. 207.
• Chappell, N.M. 1961. New Zealand Banker’s Hundred: A History of the Bank of New Zealand, 1861-1961. Wellington: Bank of New Zealand.
• Narube, S. and B.T. Whiteside. 1985. “Financial Institutions and Markets in Fiji”. In M. T. Skully, ed. Financial Institutions and Markets in the Southwest Pacific. London: Macmillan Press.
• Tschoegl, A.E. 2005. Foreign Banks in the Pacific: A Note. Journal of Pacific History.