- “Last year, our banks spent $5.7 billion running their businesses in New Zealand. That includes paying local businesses for goods and services. We expect this initiative will make a difference for many businesses.”
- According to NZ Bankers Association figures nearly 54,000 bank customers with mortgages of just under $19 billion have gone on the six month repayment ‘holiday’, which was offered in March.
- According to the New Zealand Bankers’ Association, banks approved repayment deferrals on $18.9 billion of consumer loans to 53,779 customers, in the nearly two months to May 18.
- The banking sector, meanwhile, is on board and committing to paying suppliers of goods and services within two weeks, New Zealand Bankers’ Association chief executive Roger Beaumont said.
- “Other important factors that determine retail interest rates include the cost of wholesale funding from overseas and the cost of domestic funding, which includes rates of return on retail bank deposits.”
- Beaumont said banks are “responsible lenders” and the BFGS doesn’t change that. “Businesses borrowing under the scheme still need to see a way of repaying the loan.”
- As of an update posted yesterday on the New Zealand Bankers Association website 105,035 loans had been reduced or payments deferred on them totalling loans worth $36.9 billion.
