'Excessive' RBNZ bank capital proposals to add up to 1.25% to mortgage rates: UBS

'Excessive' RBNZ bank capital proposals to add up to 1.25% to mortgage rates: UBS
Pattrick Smellie
By Pattrick Smellie Jan. 17 (BusinessDesk) - The Reserve Bank's proposal to require New Zealand trading banks to run much more conservative balance sheets can be expected to add between 0.8 and 1.25 percentage points to home mortgage rates, the Australian arm of Swiss banking giant UBS says. "We believe the RBNZ's endeavours to strengthen the banks could come at a significant cost to the New Zealand economy as they appear to be materially underestimating the likely mortgage repricing," UBS says in a note from its Sydney-based analytics te...