Local retail brands go offshore
Two of Australia’s best-known retail financial services brands have spread their wings overseas today.
ANZ has announced it will open a representative office in New Caledonia, while QBE has bought a general insurance business in Colombia and an underwriting agency active in France, Germany and Spain.
ANZ will offer personal and private banking to citizens of France’s Pacific territory, although commercial banking will not be offered. The office, in the capital Noumea, will represent and support services actually carried out from Australia and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the latest of QBE’s 85 acquisitions of the past two decades are Central de Seguros, a Colombian general insurer bought for only slightly above its net tangible assets; and Greenhill Underwriting Group, an insurance supplier to the London market.
National Bank, meanwhile has formally offloaded two of its overseas interests to the Danish Danske Bank — the National Irish Bank, and the Northern Bank which was famously robbed before Christmas.
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