There is one curious detail in the "response to submissions" published by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday on its consultation over its approach to rolling out Basel III in the local economy."A small number [of banks] questioned whether the new [capital] ratios were necessary, given for instance the lack of bank failures in New Zealand," the RBNZ wrote.The last bank failure in New Zealand was in 1990, when the government was obliged to spend NZ$680 million on the rescue of Bank of New Zealand.And the failure before that was in 1989, when DFC, the former development bank, was forced into statutory management.The direct cost to the New Zealand government of the BNZ bailout in 1990 was equal to 2.3 per cent of government expenditure, the RBNZ said in a 2009 review of banking crises.