The banks Adrian Orr was talking to about business lending

BNZ chief executive Dan Huggins said BNZ is working hard to support business. (Image: supplied)

Thu, 11 Nov 2021

With Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr's message ringing in their ears that the four major banks need to be using their balance sheets to support the recovery from the covid pandemic, their latest results point to who he was talking to.The central bank's own data shows bank lending to businesses shrank by $5 billion to $113b between March 2020 when the covid crisis began and Sept 30 this year.Only the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) and ASB Bank can demonstrate that they have been doing their best to lend to wary businesses.BNZ was the only bi...

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