ANZ National has been forced to put plans to migrate all customer accounts to a single processing system on ice after costs spiralled, according to local press reports.
ANZ acquired National Bank of New Zealand from the UK's Lloyds TSB in 2003. The resultant ANZ National has since looked to implement a common IT system, enabling customers to carry out their banking at branches of either.
The bank said in August is was looking into consolidating account processing from its legacy Hogan system to a core platform from Systematics.
But, according to Nz Infotech Weekly, a review found the cost of the move would be "significantly higher" than the planned $200 million. In addition, the global banking crisis has forced management to reconsider the project.
According to an Nz Infotech Weekly source, the bank has already spent tens of millions of dollars on the business case, put together by a team of 68 staff.
A spokeswoman told the weekly that the bank is still working on a single system but is now looking "to take a different route"
ANZ puts brakes on IT merger - Nz Infotech Weekly