(Bloomberg) -- The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Board has resolved that Governor Adrian Orr did not breach the bank’s code of conduct in his row with a think tank over bank capital requirements.
“The Reserve Bank Board has reviewed the complaint and determined not to uphold it,” Chair Neil Quigley said in an emailed response to questions Friday in Wellington. He declined to provide any further comment.
The allegation against Orr was made by the New Zealand Initiative, a business-funded think tank, in letters to both Quigley and Finance Minister Nicola Willis in late May. Details of the claim were never disclosed but followed Orr’s response to criticism of the RBNZ by New Zealand Initiative Chair Roger Partridge.
Writing about a study into personal banking by the anti-trust Commerce Commission, Partridge said it “painted a troubling picture of the Reserve Bank’s approach to prudential supervision,” and claimed many of the central bank’s rules had inadvertently deterred banking competition.
Orr responded in a letter to the editor of the New Zealand Herald newspaper, saying the argument was “tired, misleading, and needs to be called out,” and asking whether retail banks who are members of the NZ Initiative should be sponsoring the group.
Todd Stephenson, finance spokesperson for government coalition partner ACT, accused Orr of “browbeating” the banks for supporting a think tank he disagrees with.
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