New disclosure regime for banks

Friday 19th November 2010

Registered banks will be required to comply with the Reserve Bank’s revamped bank disclosure regime from the first quarter of next year.

The RBNZ deputy governor, Grant Spencer, released the policy outcome statement following consultation with the industry since August on changes intended to reduce banks’ compliance costs while creating more readily useful information about their financial strength.

“Some elements of the regime will be dropped completely, while other parts, which can be costly to produce, will be streamlined and simplified,” Spencer said.

The main changes to the existing regime include:

dropping the quarterly Key Information Summary and Supplemental Disclosure Statement;
introducing a single quarterly disclosure document aimed at more financially savvy readers
cutting by three or four times the size of the half-year disclosure document, by basing it on interim rather than full-year accounting standards
further rationalisation of information across all time periods.

However, the RBNZ has dropped its intention to make banks produce an interest-rate re-pricing schedule every quarter rather than every six months, following feedback demonstrating the extra costs would “outweigh the advantages of more frequent updates.”

The overhaul of the disclosure regime is the first since it was established in 1996.

(BusinessDesk)

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