The Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme ran between October 2008 and October 2010. At its peak, the original scheme guaranteed deposits of approximately $133 billion with 72 financial institutions. Nine financial institutions defaulted while participating in the scheme. All payments to depositors for defaults under the original scheme were completed by early December 2010, when that scheme ended.
The Extended Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme was set up under its own specific legislation in October 2010. When it started, it covered deposits worth approximately $1.9 billion with seven financial institutions. That scheme ended in December 2011.
These schemes covered all retail deposits of participating New Zealand-registered banks and retail deposits by locals in non-bank deposit-taking entities, and were designed to give assurance to New Zealand depositors in uncertain international financial market conditions.
In addition, a Wholesale Guarantee Facility was set up in November 2008 to help banks operating in New Zealand access funding during the liquidity crisis that affected global financial markets. This facility ran until April 2010.
Status of this Material: Not Current
These Retail Deposit and Wholesale Funding Guarantees pages and their linked files are no longer actively updated. They remain publicly available but have 'Archived' status in accordance with the New Zealand Government Web Usability Standard 1.3 (1 July 2019).
The Treasury proposes to withdraw these pages and their linked files entirely from public access in February 2024, from which point this material will only be supplied on request. Contact [email protected] to provide feedback to the Treasury on this proposal.