Banking industry facts and figures

Economic contribution

In 2019 banks made a direct contribution of $7.89 billion to the New Zealand economy.

Banks spent $5.73 billion running their businesses in New Zealand.

Banks paid $2.16 billion in tax in 2019.

Banks employ over 25,000 people. 

The five major banks paid $2.7 billion to employees nationwide.

Source: KPMG Financial Institutions Performance (FIPS) Review of 2019

Industry strength

The financial system as a whole remains resilient to a broad range of economic risks. The banking sector maintains buffers of capital and liquidity over current requirements and has strong profitability.

Source: Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Financial Stability Report, November 2019

New Zealand ranked first in macroeconomic stability in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2019.

The soundness of New Zealand’s banks continues to rank highly (ninth out of 140 countries).

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report 2019

Banking by numbers

New Zealand has over 900 bank branches.

New Zealand has over 2,500 bank ATMs.

New Zealand banks have an asset base (total assets) of $574 billion.

In 2019 the return on assets was 1.04%.

Banks’ average return on equity in 2019 was 13.52%.

Banks’ average net interest margin in 2019 was 2.10%, down from 2.12% in 2018.

In 2019 the five major New Zealand banks had an average total capital adequacy ratio of 14.96%.

Source: KPMG FIPS Review of 2019

Loans to households at January 2020 totalled $286.2 billion.

Loans to businesses (excluding agriculture) at January 2020 totalled $116.1 billion.

Loans to the agricultural sector at January 2020 totalled $63.1 billion.

Source: RBNZ C5 Sector lending (registered banks and non-bank lending institutions)