Briefs: Banking Code defended in Senate, RBNZ surprises again

Banking Day staff
  • A bid by Pauline Hanson's One Nation to derail the revised Banking Code of Practice in the Senate failed on Tuesday night. Senator Malcolm Roberts moved a motion to disallow a regulation made by ASIC, exercising powers to approve codes of conduct that relate to any aspect of the activities of financial services licensees…. in relation to which ASIC has a regulatory responsibility."

  • The RBNZ has again wrong-footed the financial markets and analysts - this time by deciding to hold the OCR at 1.0 per cent rather than cutting further as most expected. The NZ dollar and swaps rates rose sharply after the announcement, which an unusually subdued governor Adrian Orr effectively said was a margin call. "If you are having a hard time deciding, you are probably in a good place" was his reasoning. ASB Chief Economist Nick Tuffley said the decision had backfired, with the 2-year swap rate up 21 basis points in the immediate aftermath. Wholesale interest rates are now back to where they were before August's bold 50 bps OCR cut.