45 articles
Cabinet’s Economic Policy Committee has formally authorised public consultation on a prudential levy to shift Reserve Bank supervision costs onto banks, insurers and market infrastructure operators from 2027/28.
Australian-based users viewing New Zealand property listings jumped 190% year-on-year in August, realestate.co.nz said, after Canberra tightened capital gains and negative gearing rules on new residential investments.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has refused the Reserve Bank’s first bid to roll $10.1 million of 2025/26 underspend into 2026/27 and published three criteria that will govern every future variation under the 2025–30 Five-Year Funding Agreement.
Westpac’s chief economist says prolonged Middle East shipping risk could force firms to pass higher oil costs into New Zealand petrol, with Brent back above US$100 and Goldman flagging a conditional path to US$120.
ASB says nationwide house prices remain about 15% below peak in nominal terms and 30% lower in real terms, with flat 2026 medians and only a late-decade reclaim of late-2021 highs as OCR rises squeeze mortgage serviceability.
The Reserve Bank is consulting on a Budget 2026 prudential levy while National campaigns on no new taxes and rules out a separate bank tax. Ministers call the measure cost recovery, not a tax.
Major-bank specials still price six-month fixes near 4.75% and one-years just under 5%, while two-to-five-year money sits only 0.4–0.7 percentage points higher. That flat curve makes multi-year certainty unusually cheap after the OCR lift to 2.75%.
Farm-gate fertiliser has surged while retail food inflation sits at 1.9%. RBNZ’s September MPS still expects petroleum-linked costs to spill into food, transport and construction through late 2026.
New Zealand’s 10-year government bond yield sat at 4.78% in early September 2026, matching the US Treasury 10-year while the OCR was only 2.75% after the Reserve Bank’s 25 basis point hike. Global term premium, AI-sector debt supply and Middle East fuel inflation have already lifted wholesale, swap and fixed mortgage pricing ahead of Wellington’s calm central track toward about 3.2%.
ANZ Bank New Zealand is consulting on winding most of its Dunedin contact-centre capacity down to two roles, while the NZ franchise booked $2.37 billion cash profit and the parent still talks efficiency.
New Zealand banks wrote $1.261 billion of new mortgages above 80% LVR in July 2026, double July 2019. First-home buyers took $850 million of that flow and paid low-equity margins that special-rate borrowers avoid.
New Zealand dwelling values have drifted sideways for about 36 months since the autumn-2023 trough. If the grind lasts into autumn 2027, it would eclipse the 45-month 1997–mid-2001 spell that BNZ flags as the modern benchmark.
Stats NZ annual average unemployment for the year to June 2026 runs from 8.1% in Northland to 3.8% in Tasman/Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast, matching Kiwibank’s multi-speed recovery map.
Cotality puts about 3,600 first-home buyers in negative equity after the 2021–22 peak. ANZ has already lifted floating home-loan rates 25 basis points after the OCR moved to 2.75%.
ANZ and Westpac have lifted floating home-loan rates by a full 25 basis points after the Reserve Bank’s move to 2.75%, adding roughly $48–$58 a fortnight in interest on a typical $500,000–$600,000 mortgage while many deposit accounts rose by far less.
The Reserve Bank raised the Official Cash Rate 25 basis points to 2.75% on 2 September 2026, the second consecutive hike, as June CPI of 4.1% stayed above the 1–3% band. The central track peaks near 3.2%.
The Government has rescinded October 2025 decisions that would have forced KiwiSaver and other managed funds to report private and unlisted holdings in granular categories on the Disclose Register from March 2027.
Westpac New Zealand has scrapped merchandise redemptions from its hotpoints credit cards after only 7 percent of points were used that way, shifting customers toward merchant-funded cashback offers that sit outside the bank’s classic points P&L.
The Reserve Bank has opened a ten-week consultation on a proposed prudential levy designed to recover about $209 million from banks, insurers and FMIs, with NZBA urging the charge be appropriate and well targeted.
ANZ cut 85 bank ATMs over two years and Westpac cut 54, as free cash access thins and private machines charge about $2.50 a withdrawal ahead of RBNZ’s September cash findings.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has left fuel excise increases, an accommodation levy and a wider bank levy on the table if National wins a second term, even as the party pledges no new taxes on working people under new Budget Responsibility Rules.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.50 percent on 8 July 2026. Persistent inflation at 4.1 percent in the June quarter outweighed tentative signs of economic rebound.
New Zealand recorded 111 mortgagee sales in the second quarter of 2026. The figure stands well below the peaks recorded during the global financial crisis.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand launched its Keeping Cash Local consultation without confirmed statutory powers to impose mandatory cash access standards on banks.
Financial mentors now spend 40 percent of their time helping clients apply for KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals to cover basic living costs.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand expects headline inflation to reach 4.3 per cent in the September 2026 quarter after the Strait of Hormuz disruption drives up fuel costs. Markets price an official cash rate peak of 3.7 per cent by the end of 2027, above the central bank's conditional 3.2 per cent path.
The Financial Markets Authority will assume regulatory responsibility for the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 from the Commerce Commission on 1 July 2026.
ANZ Bank New Zealand will appeal a High Court decision that found it breached mortgage variation disclosure rules, exposing the bank to potential liability of up to $125 million across roughly 17,000 customers.
Stride Property Group lowered its bank loan-to-value ratio to 34 percent in the year to 31 March 2026 while holding its dividend at 8.0 cents per share. The moves illustrate how Reserve Bank of New Zealand interest rate cuts have improved cash flow for commercial property borrowers.
Kiwibank raised its nine-month term deposit rate by 15 basis points to 3.55 percent and its one-year rate by five basis points to 3.9 percent on 28 May 2026, becoming the first major bank to adjust offerings after the Reserve Bank held the official cash rate steady at 2.25 percent.
New Zealand consumers using generative AI tools for budgeting, investment picks and financial queries risk generic or inaccurate recommendations not tailored to local conditions.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the Official Cash Rate unchanged at 2.25 percent on 27 May 2026. The Monetary Policy Committee cited the need for more data on the inflation spike triggered by the Middle East conflict before any adjustment.
Around 43 percent of New Zealand residential mortgage debt will reprice in the next six months, driving many households toward higher costs even while the Reserve Bank holds the Official Cash Rate at 2.25 percent.
Warnings from Fitch Ratings and S&P Global that a planned cap on local council rate increases could weaken their creditworthiness have exposed the degree to which New Zealand's local government system depends on endless rates hikes to sustain ballooning debt levels.
New Zealand Police have received 43 public reports and around 320 submissions from duty holders under the Russia Sanctions Act, with only nine cases advancing to investigation and no confirmed breaches identified.
Nvidia's record $81.6 billion first-quarter revenue has laid bare the substantial, often unappreciated exposure KiwiSaver investors carry to the AI chip leader through passive index trackers.
ASB Bank forecasts inflation above 4 per cent for the rest of 2026, citing supply-chain effects from the Middle East conflict that prompted the Reserve Bank to hold the official cash rate at 2.25 per cent in April.
New Zealand banks channel only 18 per cent of lending to businesses excluding agriculture, well below the 30 per cent share recorded in Australia at the same point.
No New Zealand bank has met Consumer NZ's threshold for its People's Choice award for customer satisfaction in 2026, the first time this has occurred in ten years.
KiwiSaver recorded a 514 percent jump in partial withdrawals tied to permanent emigration in the first quarter of 2026, with roughly 2,000 people taking $77 million according to Financial Services Council figures. This surge, alongside a record $296.7 million in early hardship and first-home withdrawals in March 2026, signals that New Zealand's retirement scheme is doubling as an emergency exit…
Bank of New Zealand appointed receivers on 11 May 2026 to 92,902 shares in Dairy Goat Co-operative held by King Country Partnership (2013) Limited Partnership, together with all associated milk supply rights.
Independent economist Michael Reddell said he blanched at NZ First leader Winston Peters' threat to buy back the Bank of New Zealand from National Australia Bank and merge it with Kiwibank.
New Zealand's four largest retail banks have joined Visa's Agentic Ready programme and can now handle AI-driven agent-initiated payments using existing tokenisation and risk controls.
Markets have repriced a 0.25 percentage point OCR hike in July as almost certain after the Middle East conflict drove sharp rises in global oil prices and lifted near-term inflation expectations.
New Zealand businesses are prioritising cash reserves and balance-sheet strength over capital spending, even as operating profits hit $31 billion in the December 2025 quarter. This caution, triggered by geopolitical shocks and prolonged policy uncertainty, risks locking in weak productivity growth and lower living standards for years.
