Application criteria for acceptance of Foreign Government and Foreign Government Guaranteed NZ$ denominated securities in Reserve Bank Domestic Operations
Thank you for your interest in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand accepting your issuance as security in its liquidity operations. Please provide the information noted below and attest to the following statements:
Information
- Background on the issuer (including all ratings);
- Details of the issue, as per an Issue Notice, Prospectus and/or Information
Memorandum. This should include:
- Full legal name of Issuer;
- Physical and postal address;
- Description;
- Issue size;
- Pricing convention (full details)
- Currency;
- Arranger;
- Dealers;
- Registrar;
- Paying agent;
- Term;
- Clearing system;
- Governing law;
- Redemption;
- Payments and record date; and
- Listing (Stock exchange if any).
Attestation
Confirm that the issue meets the following criteria:
- The issuer has a subsidiary or related party within New Zealand (please provide detail).
- For debt issuance, the issue must have a long term AA+ rating, or better, from at least two acceptable rating agencies and where appropriate have obtained the relevant Government guarantee.
- For CP issuance, the issue must have an A-1+ rating from at least two rating agencies and where appropriate have obtained the relevant Government guarantee.
- Issue is plain vanilla (e.g., a bond with no optionality and not sub-ordinated).
- Issue’s pricing convention follows price and yield formulae as used by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand – in particular bonds should have a semi-annual coupon. This formula can be found on the Reserve Bank website at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finmarkets/domesticmarkets/3287159.pdf.
- Issues will be lodged in Austraclear. Eligibility criteria for lodgement into Austraclear include having a suitable registrar, and paying agent (not Reserve Bank).
- Issue has more than three days to maturity.
Also as is usual for securities in Austraclear, only Austraclear members who have a valid resident withholding tax certificate are allowed to hold these securities in the Austraclear depository.
Subsequent issues of the same security will not require Reserve Bank approval.
The Reserve Bank reserves the right to refuse an application for any reason and is not required to disclose such reasons. In particular, it should be noted that if the credit rating of the issuer/issue falls below the Reserve Bank’s threshold, then the issue will cease to be eligible in the Reserve Banks’ operations. Also, the Reserve Bank will seek a reciprocal agreement with the Central Bank of the relevant country to accept NZ Government guaranteed securities denominated in that country’s currency in its domestic operations.
The above information must be signed by authorised signatories of the Issuer. The Reserve Bank will require a list of authorised signatories for the Issuer and evidence satisfactory in form and substance to the Reserve Bank of the authority of the authorised signatories of the Issuer to execute this Agreement, any other notice or communication issued in respect of this Agreement on behalf of the Issuer.
Please post applications to:
The Manager
Domestic Markets
Financial Markets Department
Reserve Bank of New Zealand
PO Box 2498
Wellington
New Zealand
