The crisis preparedness policies are designed to enable the orderly resolution of a deposit taker failure, while preserving critical customer services and avoiding the use of public funds.
“The New Zealand financial system is resilient, and deposit takers are required to have strong capital buffers. Despite these safeguards, international experience shows us that failures can occur and we need to be prepared,” says Acting Assistant Governor Financial Stability, Angus McGregor.
“Having a crisis management framework in place before a failure occurs is essential for reducing economic damage and disruption for New Zealanders,” Mr McGregor says.
The crisis preparedness package reflects several years of policy work drawing from international practice and addressing New Zealand’s unique context. It supplements protections under the Depositor Compensation Scheme and other standards RBNZ has developed as part of implementing the DTA.
Requirements proposed in the crisis preparedness package include:
- recovery planning and resolution pre-positioning, meaning deposit takers establish contingency plans and internal capabilities for dealing with severe financial stress; and
- the design of loss-absorbing capacity (LAC) instruments being introduced for domestic systemically important banks (Group 1 deposit takers) following our review of key capital settings in 2025.
Alongside the crisis preparedness package, RBNZ is consulting on six draft standards with accompanying guidance relating to:
- Capital
- Internal Models (requirements relevant only to deposit takers that use the Internal Ratings-Based model)
- Operational Resilience
- Outsourcing
- Disclosure (remaining aspects not covered in tranche 2 consultation)
- Related Party Exposures.
This consultation marks the third and final tranche of DTA draft standards and guidance that will be issued in 2027. Crisis preparedness standards will be issued separately in 2028.
“We have appreciated deposit taker support and input through previous DTA consultations, and we look forward to their feedback on these proposals,” Mr McGregor says.
Both consultations are open for twelve weeks, with submissions due by 5pm on Friday 11 September 2026.
DTA Standards exposure drafts (tranche 3) – Citizen Space
DTA Crisis Preparedness package – Citizen Space
Next steps
All DTA standards except those relating to crisis preparedness will be issued by 31 May 2027 and come into effect on 1 December 2028.
Crisis preparedness standards will be issued in 2028 and come into effect in 2029, although implementation timeframes may vary, to give deposit takers reasonable time to comply.
Notes to editors
The DTA empowers the Reserve Bank to make prudential ‘standards’, which are secondary legislation. These are the core prudential rule-making instruments under the DTA. RBNZ is responsible for drafting and issuing them. RBNZ consults on DTA standards in two phases, as follows:
- Phase one is policy consultation, which seeks feedback on the substantive policy positions for each standard. The crisis preparedness package is at this phase and follows on from RBNZ’s Crisis Management Issues Paper in 2024. Other DTA policy consultation occurred in 2024.
- The second phase is publication of the exposure draft of the standard with any accompanying guidance. At this phase the policy is set, and the consultation seeks feedback on whether the resulting standard delivers its intent and the guidance is clear and complete.
RBNZ will publish ‘near final’ versions of standards we consulted on in 2025 and early 2026 (DTA standards exposure drafts tranches 1 and 2) before they are issued, to give deposit takers as much time and information as possible to plan their transition to the DTA.
More information
- Deposit Takers Act information
- 2024 Crisis Management Issues Paper (PDF, 1.16MB)
- 2025 Review of key capital settings
- DTA Standards exposure drafts (tranche 1) – Citizen Space
- DTA Standards exposure drafts (tranche 2) – Citizen Space
Media contact
Scott Sinclair
Senior Manager, Engagement
[email protected]