The Deposit Takers Act 2023 modernises our regulatory framework to help ensure the safety and soundness of deposit takers. This is in line with our mandate to promote the prosperity and wellbeing of New Zealanders.
The Act:
- Provides a single, coherent regulatory regime to enable robust regulation of all deposit takers.
- Provides for new inspection powers and the framework for managing and resolving a deposit taker in financial distress.
- Introduces a new Depositor Compensation Scheme (DCS) so depositors can have confidence that their deposits, in the event of a deposit taker failure, are eligible for compensation up to $100,000 per depositor, per institution.
Read our Deposit Takers Act questions and answers
Depositor Compensation Scheme
The DCS allows depositors to have confidence that their protected deposits are safe in the event of an entity failing, up to a total of $100,000 per depositor, per institution.
Strengthening of the Reserve Bank’s powers
The strengthening of the Reserve Bank’s supervision and enforcement powers enables action to try to minimise the risks of high impact failures.
The Act:
- Provides additional powers including new requirements for directors, more inspection powers and an improved penalty framework.
- Creates a single regulatory regime for all entities who hold deposits — for example, banks and credit unions, to enable robust monitoring of all deposit takers to ensure consumers are protected.
- Provides the framework for managing and resolving any deposit taker in financial distress.
The Act
The Deposit Takers Bill was introduced to Parliament on 22 September 2022, and the Deposit Takers Act received Royal Assent on 6 July 2023.
Read our media release welcoming the legislation
You can find the Act on the New Zealand Legislation website.
Consultations
Following the passage of the Act, there remains a multi-year work programme to develop policy, standards and regulations to support the commencement of the new regime by 2028. The consultation on the next stage of policy has commenced with the proposals for the Proportionality Framework and for levies to fund the DCS. Consultation on new prudential standards is expected in the new year.
Consultation on the proposed DTA proportionality framework
Consultation on the development of regulations for the DCS
Feedback for both consultations closed on 25 September 2023. We intend to publish submissions and a summary of submissions before the end of 2023.
Industry engagement
We hosted our first banking industry workshops along with The Treasury, discussing the implementation of the new DTA following its enactment in July.
Read a summary of the key themes from the workshops
Read our DTA Industry Workshop Slides - August 2023 (PDF, 2.43MB)
The Treasury's workshop slides are available on the Treasury website.
This consultation builds on some early engagement in June 2023. See our Deposit Takers Bill presentation from 6 June 2023 (PDF, 1.50MB). There will also be other opportunities to engage on the DTA/DCS implementation in the coming months and years.
Introducing the new measures
Now the Act has been passed into law, a substantial work programme is needed to implement the new prudential framework for deposit takers. It will take some years for the Reserve Bank to develop and consult on the secondary legislation that will implement the regulatory requirements for the new regime and complete a licensing process for deposit takers to operate under the regime. The parts of the current Banking (Prudential Supervision) Act 1989 relating to the regulation and supervision of registered banks and the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act 2013 will remain in force until the remaining parts of the DTA have been fully implemented.
Read the Banking (Prudential Supervision) Act 1989
Read the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act 2013
The DCS is being prioritised ahead of the rest of the Act coming into effect and is expected to be up and running in late 2024, before the rest of the DTA.
Consultation on the Bill
During the Review of the Reserve Bank, 3 rounds of consultation took place, and in December 2021, we released an exposure draft of the proposed Deposit Takers Bill for public consultation. The exposure draft was a preview of the Bill, enabling anyone with a view to submit feedback before we provided final advice to the Minister and developed the Bill to be introduced to Parliament. The consultation closed on 21 February 2022.
As well as releasing the exposure draft of the proposed Bill, we prepared a commentary document to provide a high-level summary of the exposure draft and identify areas where we were seeking further input.
See exposure draft of the Deposit Takers Bill consultation (PDF 965KB)
Explanatory notes of the Exposure Draft (PDF 734KB)
Following this, the Finance and Expenditure Committee considered the Bill and this material can be found on the New Zealand Parliament website.
Background to the Deposit Takers Act
The Deposit Takers Act is the final piece of legislation arising from the Review of the Reserve Bank, which started in 2017. Minister of Finance Hon Grant Robertson initiated the Review to modernise New Zealand’s monetary and financial stability policy frameworks and the Reserve Bank’s governance and accountability settings. A joint review team (Reserve Bank and Treasury) worked on the Review of the Reserve Bank and led the development of the Deposit Takers workstream until May 2021.
Read about the review of the Reserve Bank Act on the Treasury website