19 Dec 2015

Banks' finances may open to the public

7:53 am on 19 December 2015

The Reserve Bank is considering requiring banks, finance companies and similar institutions to disclose more information to the public about their finances and on a more regular basis.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

It follows a lengthy stocktake of the existing rules for these institutions.

As a result, the central bank wants to boost the effectiveness of the current financial disclosure statements that banks must make every three months.

It wants to look at what sort of additional information should be given in so called off-quarter disclosures .

One of the methods to be considered is what's called the dashboard technique.

This would have banks' information displayed online in an easy-to-read format, which could be checked in a manner similar to reading a dial on a car dashboard.

The Reserve Bank wants to further investigate the idea before taking further steps.

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