In New Zealand, more than two-thirds of consumer loans that had principal and interest repayments deferred due to the impact of COVID-19 are now ‘back to normal’ said the New Zealand Bankers’ Association. And nearly 40 percent of consumer loans that had reduced repayments are now back on track. Meanwhile, fresh lending figures out from the RBNZ show bank lending for housing rose NZ$2.9b in Oct from Sept, while business lending fell $538m and Agriculture lending fell $125m.

 

The New Zealand government has extended its business debt hibernation scheme by a further ten months, to October 2021. The scheme allows businesses that meet the necessary criteria to place their existing debts on hold for up to seven months in order to "explore options for continuing to trade”. It has been little used to date, with less than 50 applications.

 

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is investigating why its Exchange Settlement Account System (ESAS), went down for three hours on Monday, preventing banks from making real time transactions with each other. The backlog is being cleared.   The New Zealand Financial Markets Association (NZFMA) announced that it will calculate and publish an OCR Compound Index from today, providing a standardised method of calculating term risk-free interest rates in arrears.