The government’s changes to the KiwiSaver scheme aren’t likely to put investors off it, says Ian Park, chief executive of retail banking at ASB Bank, the second largest KiwiSaver provider.
“The scheme is such a good scheme, I think it will continue to see growth and new people joining,” Park says.
He doesn’t expect the changes will prompt many KiwiSavers to take a contributions holiday.
“As more and more people are exposed to it and start to see the benefits and, I guess, see their balances rise, it gives them a lot of confidence.”
However, “generally speaking, people that are saving like to have a stable, consistent approach.”
The increase in required employee contributions from 2% to 3% of earnings won’t affect all ASB’s KiwiSaver customers.
“There’s a significant chunk of people contributing more than 2% anyway.
From that perspective, some of our customers won’t be impacted by the increase.”