Christian Hawkesby: Our transformation as a prudential regulator

Speech (written by Maisie Prior) by Mr Christian Hawkesby, Deputy Governor and General Manager of Financial Stability of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, to the Financial Services Council, Auckland, 22 September 2022.

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

Introduction

Kia ora koutou katoa. Tēnā koutou katoa.
It is a pleasure to speak to you today at the annual Financial Services Council Conference.
This was the first speaking invitation that I received when I took up the role of Deputy Governor and General Manager of Financial Stability. It is a great opportunity to outline what's next for the Reserve Bank, Te Pūtea Matua as a prudential regulator and supervisor.

In one sense, this role is new to me. I have spent much of the past ten years being regulated rather than being a regulator. In another sense, it is familiar territory, given my time on our internal Financial Stability Committee since 2019, and experience at the Bank of England earlier in my career.

As an institution we are going through the most significant changes since the Reserve Bank of New Zealand reforms of the 1980s.

Phase one of these changes was to our approach to monetary policy. They came into force on 1 April 2019 and provided us with a dual mandate – price stability and contributing to maximum sustainable employment – and established our Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), replacing the single decision-maker model.

Today, I'll focus on the result of phase two of these reforms, relating to our institutional arrangements and approach to financial stability, as a prudential regulator and supervisor.