BNZ completes sale of life insurance business

The deal includes a 10-year exclusive agreement

BNZ completes sale of life insurance business

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has completed the sale of its life insurance business, BNZ Life, to local insurer Partners Life.

Read more: Westpac completes $400 million sale of NZ life insurance business

The deal, announced in December 2020 pending regulatory and other approvals, which were received in September, includes an exclusive agreement that will see BNZ continuing to refer customers with life insurances needs to Partners Life exclusively for a 10-year period, subject to the insurer continuing to meet agreed operating standards.

“We’re pleased to be able to complete the sale of BNZ Life to Partners Life,” said Karna Luke, BNZ executive, customer, products, and services. “It’s an important part of our drive to simplify our business as we work to perfect the basics and relentlessly focus on serving our customers brilliantly. Partners Life are an industry leader in life insurance in New Zealand, and our shared values of putting our customers first and partnering with them to help them reach their goals gives us the utmost confidence our insurance customers are in good hands.”

Read next: Kiwibank owner completes $45m sale of life insurance business

“We are absolutely delighted to be welcoming BNZ Life customers and staff into the Partners Life business, and we are determined to look after them just as well as we have always done for our existing customers and staff,” said Naomi Ballantyne, Partners life managing director. “We have been very impressed with the commitment and capability of BNZ staff to ready the BNZ Life business for a seamless hand-over and we are very much looking forward to our ongoing referral relationship with BNZ.”

All BNZ Life customers have already been transitioned to Partners Life.