A new bank has emerged from the rubble of New Zealand's finance company sector.The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has awarded a banking licence to Heartland Building Society, almost two years after the new grouping of former finance companies and building societies applied for the licence.Heartland was formed in January 2011 from the merger of Marac Finance, CBS Canterbury and the Southern Cross Building Society. It was joined in August 2011 by rural lender PGG Wrightson Finance.Marac, which lent to property developers, small businesses, car buyers and farmers, survived the global financial crisis with the help of a government guarantee and a capital injection from its shareholders.The approval follows the departure from the share register of George Kerr's Pyne Gould Corporation (PGC), which sold its Heartland stake in mid-2012. Prior to PGC's departure, Kerr had been embroiled in a dispute with the Financial Markets Authority over related party transactions involving Kerr's Torchlight Investment Group and a PGC managed fund.CBS Canterbury was a building society based in Canterbury, while Southern Cross was an Auckland-based building society and then a finance company. PGG Wrightson Finance was part of the PGG Wrightson rural supplies group and lent on stock.Heartland joins a group of New Zealand-owned banks that have been formed and registered as banks over the last decade to compete with the dominant four Australian-owned banks. This group includes: Kiwibank, registered in 2001; Southland Building Society (SBS Bank), registered in October 2008; and The Cooperative Bank (formerly PSIS), registered in October 2011. The long-awaited bank registration is expected to unleash a wave of marketing and competitive activity by Heartland, particularly in small business and rural lending. Heartland is an NZX-listed firm with NZ$2.35 billion (A$1.88 billion) of assets as at June 30, a market capitalisation of NZ$268 million (A$215 million) and net profit in the year to June 30 of NZ$23.6 million (A$18.9 million). Heartland has a BBB- credit rating with a stable outlook from Standard and Poor's.