WELLINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government is to put its banking contract out to tender for the first time in more than two decades, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce announced Monday.
The country's most valuable banking contract, which is held by the Australian owned Westpac bank, is believed to be worth millions of dollars and reportedly covers transactions worth around 450 billion NZ dollars (392.43 billion U.S. dollars) each year.
"Core banking services for government haven't been tendered for over 20 years and banking trends and technology have evolved considerably during this time," Joyce said in a statement announcing the tender.
The tender was an opportunity for payments and banking suppliers to work with government to put in place a modern banking solution that was flexible enough to accommodate future innovation.
Banking services for Inland Revenue department would remain with Westpac as the department was undergoing a major transformation project.
A request for proposals would close on Oct. 10, Joyce said.
The opposition Green Party has been pushing for years to put the government's banking contract to competitive tenders, claiming the contract with Westpac was one way that Australian-owned banks extracted millions of dollars in profits from New Zealand every year.
Ideally, the government's banking should be done by a New Zealand bank, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said in a statement last month.
The "all of government" tender covers most of the government's banking including public service departments, state service agencies, about 2,500 schools and the wider public sector.
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