Depositor Compensation Scheme
To deliver our obligations under the Act, from mid-2025, we will be introducing a Depositor Compensation Scheme.
Find out more
Background and purpose of the Deposit Takers Act
The Deposit Takers Act will protect deposits and increase the stability of our financial system.
Review of the Reserve Bank
The Deposit Takers Act is the final piece of legislation arising from the Review of the Reserve Bank. 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.
Much had changed in the 30 years since the Act was first passed — both in the international financial environment and with financial system regulation. The goal of the Review was to modernise:
- New Zealand’s monetary and financial stability policy frameworks, and
- the Reserve Bank’s governance and accountability settings.
Read more about the Reserve Bank Act Review including:
- Phase 1 of the Review (monetary policy)
- Phase 2 of the Review (The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 2021 and the Deposit Takers Act 2023
Read about the review of the Reserve Bank Act on the Treasury website
A joint review team (Reserve Bank and Treasury) with governance from a steering committee worked on the Review of the Reserve Bank and led the development of the Deposit Takers workstream until May 2021.
Deposit Takers Bill
In April 2021, Cabinet agreed to a set of recommendations to design a new prudential framework for deposit takers alongside a strengthened crisis management regime and depositor compensation. You can find further details on these decisions in the proactive release of materials on the Treasury website.
In October 2021 and June 2022, Cabinet made further decisions regarding more details of the Act.
The Deposit Takers Bill was introduced to Parliament on 22 September 2022.
Consultation on the Bill
During the Review of the Reserve Bank, 3 rounds of consultation took place. On 6 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 feedback before we provided final advice to the Minister and developed the Bill to be introduced to Parliament. We ran workshops with banks and non-bank deposit takers and met with several firms to address their questions on the Bill. The consultation closed on 21 February 2022.
We published submissions in full (except for one submission where the submitter requested it be withheld), and a suite of documents that support the introduction of the 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
Explanatory notes of the Exposure Draft (PDF 734KB)
The Finance and Expenditure Committee considered the Bill and this material can be found on the New Zealand Parliament website.