Global Trade Alert

The wholesale funding guarantee facility is designed to:

• Facilitate access to international financial markets by New Zealand financial institutions, in a global environment where international investors remain highly risk averse and where many other governments have offered guarantees on their banks' wholesale debt.
• Encourage issuers to withdraw from using the guarantee facility, and the Crown to withdraw from offering it, on new issues as soon as the international markets return to normal.

The facility will be available to financial institutions that have an investment grade credit rating (BBB- or better), and have substantial New Zealand borrowing and lending operations. The scheme does not include non-financial (eg corporate and local authority) issuers. This focus on financial intermediaries is consistent with the approach to wholesale guarantee facilities which has been adopted in other countries.
Branches of foreign banks would be included among the institutions eligible for a wholesale guarantee scheme, but only in respect of their New Zealand dollar issuance. Eligibility is restricted to those branches' issuance of New Zealand dollar securities to avoid any risk of any New Zealand guarantee supporting the funding of the wider group.