Orr's blunt message to banks more important than rate cut

Mon, 16 Mar 2020

Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr believes getting the country's largest banks to use the "enormous headroom" in their balance sheets is more important to help New Zealand businesses and households through the coronavirus disruptions than today's historic interest rate cut."I think it will take a little while to sink in: the fact that we're saying to the banks 'there's a delay' (to new capital adequacy requirements), also you've got a buffer and together you've got multiple years of credit lending under normal conditions."As well as cutting the...

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