The crisis preparedness policies are designed to enable the orderly resolution of a deposit taker failure, while preserving critical customer services and avoiding the use of public funds.
"The New Zealand financial system is resilient, and deposit takers are required to have strong capital buffers. Despite these safeguards, international experience shows us that failures can occur and we need to be prepared," says Acting Assistant Governor Financial Stability, Angus McGregor.
"Having a crisis management framework in place before a failure occurs is essential for reducing economic damage and disruption for New Zealanders," Mr McGregor says.
The crisis preparedness package reflects several years of policy work drawing from international practice and addressing New Zealand's unique context. It supplements protections under the Depositor Compensation Scheme and other standards RBNZ has developed as part of implementing the DTA.
Requirements proposed in the crisis preparedness package include:
- recovery planning and resolution pre-positioning, meaning deposit takers establish contingency plans and internal capabilities for dealing with severe financial stress; and
- the design of loss-absorbing capacity (LAC) instruments being introduced for domestic systemically important banks (Group 1 deposit takers) following our review of key capital settings in 2025.
Alongside the crisis preparedness package, RBNZ is consulting on six draft standards with accompanying guidance relating to:
- Capital
- Internal Models (requirements relevant only to deposit takers that use the Internal Ratings-Based model)
- Operational Resilience
- Outsourcing
- Disclosure (remaining aspects not covered in tranche 2 consultation)
- Related Party Exposures.
This consultation marks the third and final tranche of DTA draft standards and guidance that will be issued in 2027. Crisis preparedness standards will be issued separately in 2028.
"We have appreciated deposit taker support and input through previous DTA consultations, and we look forward to their feedback on these proposals," Mr McGregor says.
Both consultations are open for twelve weeks, with submissions due by 5pm on Friday 11 September 2026.
DTA Standards exposure drafts (tranche 3) - Citizen Space
DTA Crisis Preparedness package - Citizen Space
Next steps
All DTA standards except those relating to crisis preparedness will be issued by 31 May 2027 and come into effect on 1 December 2028.
Crisis preparedness standards will be issued in 2028 and come into effect in 2029, although implementation timeframes may vary, to give deposit takers reasonable time to comply.
