With Grant Robertson’s announcement today that Kiwibank will be acquired for $2.1 billion from its state-owned shareholders, it is clear that the government hasn’t learned much about banking since the global financial crisis. Despite Robertson’s cynical spin about establishing a bank that is fully Kiwi-owned, one that keeps all profits in New Zealand, and will… Read More New Zealand’s bailout of Kiwibank
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand just published its latest Financial Strength Dashboard data. It is now up to date until 31 December of last year. A summary Capital went up. Largely thanks to restrictions on distributions and perhaps a donation from a generous parent bank, aggregate CET1 ratios are now well over twelve percent.… Read More Fresh RBNZ dashboard data confirms New Zealand’s banks are resilient – again
Just noticed this announcement from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which decided to further delay the start of increases in bank capital until … drumroll … 2022. This to allow banks continued headroom to respond to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the economic recovery. The announcement includes an indicative timetable… Read More RBNZ announces further delay of capital plans
This week and the last, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand published two speeches discussing the strength of our financial system. It has been a while that I heard Geoff Bascand and Toby Fiennes on this topic, their speeches were as welcome as they were overdue. Geoff encouraged banks to be courageous. To support the… Read More Balls please, no horses
And what does it mean for one bank in particular? Last week, audit firm KPMG published its quarterly Financial Institutions Performance Survey (or FIPS). It featured the deteriorating profitability of New Zealand’s banks. Bad news of course, and the New Zealand financial press quickly jumped on the survey. Radio New Zealand printed a headline sporting… Read More Eyes Wide Shut: Did Bank Capital Grow under RBNZ’s Governor Orr?
Yesterday’s interest.co.nz featured an article summarising the work the RBNZ has done to support our economy. The article shows a long list of actions taken by the Reserve Bank, and yes, it looks impressive. On the other hand, the text appears to serve as a mouthpiece for Assistant Reserve Bank Governor Christian Hawkesby, offers little… Read More On bank capital, what should the RBNZ do now?
An evaluation of RBNZ’s hybrid capital securities Will the RBNZ’s latest innovation on bank capital, the Redeemable Perpetual Preference Shares, contribute to more and better bank capital? The analysis below casts doubt on the success of RBNZ’s attempt to help New Zealand banks to issue capital at a low cost. A victim of its own… Read More Political Tier 1 Capital: PT1
On 5 December 2019 at 12:01 pm, I received an email from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The email announced some important decisions about the Bank’s capital review. As the email contained summary information only, I went to the RBNZ website to get the documents explaining the capital review decisions. Unfortunately, it was impossible… Read More The curious share price movements of four big Oz banks on 5 December 2019
A short note on the outcome of the RBNZ capital plans Today, the RBNZ posted its final capital plans – well, they still need to be finalised, but for the Christmas holidays this will do. In fairness, I see no reason not to commend the RBNZ for their decisions on capital. See the summary cheat… Read More On olive branches and olive trees
Tomorrow at noon, the RBNZ will reveal its bank capital plans. After many years, the RBNZ will likely decide to increase capital requirements to 17 percent for all banks, with a 1 percent add-on for systemically important banks. Having contributed to capital rules for the Basel Committee and the European Union, for me, most of… Read More RBNZ's capital proposal, the grand finale …