And here is the funny bit, it's Australian owned. If it's anything like the rest of the market which is dominated by Australian banks, it'll pay some old kiwiana type music when you are on hold and say 'Kia Ora' or similar at regular intervals. Kiwi as.
I'm not familiar with how the Reserve Bank of New Zealand operates, but if it's anything like our federal reserve, the country belongs to the bank, and not the other way around.
Come now, that's legal fiction designed to maintain the independence of the Fed. Congress created the Federal Reserve System and could remove it or twist it to whatever shape it sees fit tomorrow if it wants.
There's a good argument to be made that the Fed ran easy-money policies for too long in 2021 in order to secure Chair Powell's reappointment in early 2022; this gives you a clue as to who they are in fact beholden to, despite their nominal independence.
As such, I'm deleting the original text, since I can't delete this comment any more.
My apologies.
You're just saying the same thing with different words. If the Fed or the congress doesn't represent the people it doesn't make any difference to the elite class, who indeed own these two entities.
If this causes worse problems (which it may but hasn't yet) things will simply be changed again.
Most countries have a retail bank that uses the name of the country or region, even if they aren't the central bank.
Also, the fact that the official central bank is so close at "The Reserve Bank of New Zealand" makes it more confusing for those unfamiliar.
The only one I can think of is Voice of America. Definitely none of the major departments or agencies.
The German central bank is The Deutsche Bundesbank,which literally means "German Federal Bank" not "Bank of Germany".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Central_Bank#Capital_...
This works okayish but, you know, could be better. (Some more explanation at https://someunpleasant.substack.com/p/the-prime-directive.)
> Last week, Bank of New Zealand warned that “things could well and truly turn to custard” as the global economy is plunged into recession.
I read that and thought "Holy hell, central bankers in the US are usually extremely measured in their comments, they would never say something like 'things could well and truly turn to custard'". I misunderstood, thinking that "Bank of New Zealand" is their central bank. It's just another big bank, not "The Reserve Bank of New Zealand", which is their actual central bank.