Updates To Deposit Takers Act Implementation Timeline And Standards

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand - Te Pūtea Matua has today published an updated implementation timeline for incoming changes to the prudential regulatory regime for deposit takers.

The Deposit Takers Act 2023 (DTA) modernises the regulatory framework to help ensure the safety and soundness of deposit takers and support a stable financial system that New Zealanders can trust.

DTA standards will be issued by 31 May 2027 and come into effect on 1 December 2028.

“The standards bring to life the prudential requirements deposit takers will need to meet to be licensed under the DTA,” Director Prudential Policy Jess Rowe says.

Public consultation on the proposed standards took place across 2024 and 2025.

“We’re grateful for the insightful feedback received from submitters, and we’re now hard at work preparing the exposure drafts of the standards,” Ms Rowe says.

Exposure draft consultation will take place in three tranches, starting in October 2025.

Licensing of existing deposit takers will occur over an 18-month window, running from 1 June 2027 to 30 November 2028, ahead of the standards coming into effect on 1 December of that year. The change means all banks and non-bank deposit takers will be licensed under a single, coherent regulatory regime. In late 2025, we hope to communicate information about our approach to licensing existing deposit takers under the DTA.

Changes to the DTA implementation timeline were necessary to allow time for a review of key capital settings, announced on 31 March 2025. DTA standards were previously planned to come into effect in July 2028.

Response to submissions on the non-core standards

In 2024, we received 25 submissions to public consultation on DTA non-core standards.

In response to feedback, we have made changes to further support a proportionate approach, reduce the impact of compliance on deposit takers, and enhance potential competition in the market. Changes resulting from consultation include removing prescriptive detail and making requirements more flexible in certain areas.

Our overall assessment remains that we are striking a good balance between our primary financial stability mandate and our purposes and principles, including proportionality and competition.

Terminology explained

Core standards

These are the standards that we will use as the criteria to determine the eligibility of existing banks and NBDTs for relicensing under the DTA.

Non-core standards

These are the other standards that all deposit takers will need to comply with when the DTA standards regime starts but will not be used for relicensing existing deposit takers.

Deposit takers will need to comply with all standards when they come into force in 2028.

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