Views Sought On Revising Assurance Reports On Bank Disclosure Statements

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand – Te Pūtea Matua – is seeking feedback on proposals to improve the readability of assurance reports required on banks’ disclosure statements.

Background to consultation

All registered banks operating in New Zealand are required by law to publish a twice-yearly disclosure statement and make them readily available on their website. These disclosure requirements are set out in Orders in Council, but are administered by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
Banks are required to publish disclosure statements for two main reasons:

• to strengthen the incentives for banks to maintain sound banking practices; and
• to assist depositors and other investors to make well-informed decisions on where to put their money.

The Orders in Council also require banks’ disclosure statements to be accompanied by assurance reports. These are reports prepared by auditors with the aim of giving readers greater confidence in the accuracy of disclosure statements.

We have heard concerns that the current requirements result in assurance reports that are complex and hard to read. So we are now consulting on changes to the Orders in Council to rationalise the structure of the assurance reports and hence improve their readability. We aim to do this without compromising the level of assurance provided on disclosure statements.

Key details and how to make a submission

The consultation paper is published on our website - please click the link below.

The consultation is open until 15 March 2022. The above webpage includes information on how to make a submission.

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