Banks carry almost $1b of unseen flooding risk: research

Climate change trickles on to banks' mortgage books. (Image: Getty)

Mon, 25 Aug 2025

Banking-sector experts are cautious about the level of climate exposure that growth-hungry Kiwibank may take on, as new research suggests the nation’s biggest lenders are carrying almost $1 billion of unseen flooding risk on their mortgage books.It raises the spectre of wary banks engaging in a bout of risk-shifting, just as state-owned Kiwibank is poised to grow its business and home-loan books. But that lender’s chief executive, Steve Jurkovich, has pushed back: “Quite the contrary.” He backed his bank’...

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