23 Mar 2011

Reserve Bank to release stress test results in May

6:57 am on 23 March 2011

The Reserve Bank says it will release the results of stress tests of local banks in its next Financial Stability Report in May.

The tests were carried out on the four Australian-owned banks in conjunction with the Australian banking regulator, APRA.

The banks' solvency was tested under various scenarios in which New Zealand was hit by a deep recession.

On Monday, the International Monetary Fund called for the results to be released along with the scenarios' economic assumptions.

The IMF says it understood the banks came through the tests well, but should be tested again under more dire scenarios.

A Reserve Bank spokesman says the overall results will be released, although information about how individual banks fared will remain confidential.