BNZ is about to announce the end of its annual sponsorship of the Kiwi recovery Program.

The bank was due to announce the end of its $500,000 a year donation tomorrow, but a comment under a Stuff story on BNZ being named the Canstar "Everyday Banking" bank of the year let the kiwi out of the hat.

"Lol...this is the bank that on Thursday announces that it is ditching its support for the Kiwi Recovery program. What a great bank they are.....here they are posting $390 million half year profit and they are dropping the 500k that they give Kiwi Recovery each year!! They certainly are showing their true colours...that being the colour of money over local support," the commentor said.

The comment was posted on Stuff.

BNZ contacted Stuff to ask for the comment to be taken down saying it contained embargoed information.

The bank has been supporting the programme for 23 years, and it has featured in its TV, billboard, print and in-branch advertising.

Michelle Impey, executive director of the Kiwi Trust, which goes by the trading name Kiwis for Kiwi, said she was unable to comment, but would be issuing a media statement on Thursday.

The Kiwi Trust is an independent charity, officially launched in October 2012 to protect kiwi and their natural habitat, "taking up the mantle from BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust".

The programme was allocated $3.5million by the Government in the last Budget, spread over four years, with additional Kiwi-saving Government funding going to the Department of Conservation.

BNZ called the move a difficult choice, but stressed that it had contributed more than $12 million since 1991.

BNZ's director of retail banking and marketing, Craig Herbison, said BNZ started the discussion and the transition with Kiwis for Kiwi three years ago, to help them broaden their support base and start to remove the formal association with BNZ.

"We hold Kiwis for Kiwi in high regard, and we're immensely proud of what we've achieved together. A partnership of this tenure, and what it has delivered to the conservation effort, is one to be respected, which is why we've taken some time to end the association," said Herbison.

He said the bank's charitable efforts had not ended.

It would be focusing its community support on Plunket, a $10m commitment to the Community Finance initiative, financial literacy, and "Closed for Good", in which its staff go out and work in the community.

The community finance initiative is a scheme in which BNZ partners with charities to provide low and no interest loans to low-income people trying to get their lives back on track.

Herbison said BNZ was "moving from saving little kiwis to the big Kiwis which is New Zealanders and that's our purpose to help New Zealanders be good with money. That's where our knowledge and know-how can help".