Te Pūtea Matua - The Reserve Bank is looking to use its position and insights to improve access to capital for Māori.
It believes the unique nature of the Māori economy puts Māori at risk of missing the full benefits of the financial system, so has been working with Māori, the private sector and government agencies to make sure Māori don't miss out.
Te Pūtea Matua pou tikanga Māori Ngarimu Parata says the bank's purpose is Toitū Te Ohanga, Toitū te Oranga (enabling economic wellbeing and prosperity for all New Zealanders) and that includes Māori.
"Ahakoa rā te āhuatanga ki ētahi pakihi Māori kua paka ā rātou kiri i roto i ngā mahi whakahaere ahumoni, engari ko te nuinga karetahi. Nō reira ko tā mātou he whakarata mai rātou ki ngā pai katoa e rānea ana i roto i te pūnaha ahumoni."
(Although some Māori businesses have managed to make their way into the financial system, the majority haven't. So what we are hoping to do is highlight all the great things that can be found in it.)
More access to the economy space for Māori.
RBNZ governor Adrian Orr met iwi leaders in 2021 where he first laid out the idea to work with Māori business interests to increase their involvement with the financial sector. That was followed by months of consultations with rūnanga, hapū, land trusts, Māori financial experts and the banking and loan sectors. Parata says those hui gave Te Pūtea Matua the insight they needed to develop the tools it needed to assist Māori in accessing needed capital.
That led to the Improving Māori Access paper released in August, which looked at addressing two key pātai, what barriers Māori faced when seeking finance, and what potential options were available to Māori.
Parata says while the majority of the banks in New Zealand are owned by Australian-based parent companies, they are all registered here in Aotearoa and fall under the same regulations governed by the Reserve Bank. He believes that is why they have been receptive to the plan by the bank to provide assistance to Māori organisations.
"Kei te kite ngā pēke hei roto i ngā tau ko tētahi wāhi nui o ngā kaitono pūtea, o ngā kiritaki he Māori. Mehemea kāore rātou i te tono pūtea i a mātou ka āhua heke haere a mātou pūtea hei tohatoha hei tuku ki ngā kaiwhakangao pūtea."
(The banks can see that in years to come Māori will be a large portion of the population and therefore a large number of borrowers and customers. So they know that, if they don't look after Māori interests, they risk losing money themselves to pay out to their investors.)