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Bluestone scales back NZ business

Australian non-bank lender Bluestone has radically restructured its New Zealand business and now has just two business development managers based in this country.

Luke Roberts, national Select partnership manager, acknowledged the current position and that some staff had been laid off as a result, although he refused to provide numbers, but said others had been redeployed to work for the Australian business.

Mike Kinley is the other remaining local staffer and is business development manager BDMs for the South Island.

Among the redundancies is the former head of sales Sue Griffiths. Sydney-based head of marketing, Katie Bell, also avoided answering the question of how many people had been made redundant, but TMM's own reporting can identify at least three

BDMs had been employed in NZ since 2021 who no longer work for Bluestone. Bell explained the situation as Bluestone having “repositioned its business to focus on those New Zealanders who are overlooked and underserved by the banks and help them to realise their dream of home ownership.”

But Bluestone has always operated in the non-conforming lending space, particularly focusing on the selfemployed, those with a checkered credit history and low-doc lending. The man who used to oversee the NZ operations, Peter Wood, left Bluestone early this year after two decades with the company.

TSB CEO Donna Cooper

TSB Bank has appointed chief financial officer Gordon Davidson as its acting chief executive following the resignation of current CEO Donna Cooper.

Cooper is leaving the bank after five years in the role. She said she had steered TSB through a significant increase in regulation and growth in residential lending.

TSB's mortgage book grew by 42% to $6.2 billion between March 31, 2018 and March 31, 2023.

It's net profit in the latest year fell

47.6% to just below $20 million, largely because of a jump in personnel, IT and professional services costs.

Cooper said she felt the time was right to hand over to the next CEO while she spends more time off with her young whanau before looking for her next challenge.

Chairman Mark Darrow said Davidson will hold the helm while the board looks for a permanent replacement.

“Gordon's leadership in the interim will ensure a smooth handover and provide consistency in leadership for the organisation through this time,” Darrow said in a statement.