Christian Hawkesby: Maintaining credibility in times of change

Panel remarks by Mr Christian Hawkesby, Assistant Governor and General Manager of Economics, Financial Markets, and Banking of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, to the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies (Bank of Japan), Tokyo, 30 May 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Tena koutou katoa

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the changes we are making to maintain our credibility in times of change.

I would like to focus on two building blocks of credibility:

• renewing a social licence to operate by aligning our objectives with the needs of the public; and
• achieving those objectives through good decision making enabled by a framework of good governance.

A common theme is the importance of transparency.

The imperative for change: Central banks in the 21st century

The first building block of credibility is the renewal of a social licence to operate - by this I mean the legitimacy an institution earns by serving the public interest. It is granted by the public when an institution is seen to fulfil its social obligations.