The Reserve Bank will shift its head office to Auckland - temporarily - later this year as part of a major crisis management exercise that will involve RBNZ's board and senior management as well as Treasury and the Minister of Finance's office.
The major exercise is revealed as one of the RBNZ's strategic priorities in its latest Statement of Intent for this year through to 2016. It will be the first such exercise the bank has conducted.
RBNZ's head of communications Mike Hannah told interest.co.nz he could not give any details on the exercise "as the project is still under construction”.
Under a heading: "Strengthening business continuity" in the Statement of Intent the RBNZ says it will continue testing and enhancing its "business continuity resilience".
"Towards the end of 2013, the [RBNZ} senior management group expects to undertake a comprehensive business continuity exercise relating to a significant regional event.
"The exercise scenario will place stress on the payments system, financial markets and staff. It is intended that the exercise will activate the Auckland office as head office, and involve the bank’s board, the Treasury, the Minister of Finance’s office and other key stakeholders," the Statement of Intent says.
The Statement of Intent doesn't give any indication of how long the exercise will last.
The RBNZ's Auckland office has been operational since April 2011.
In the central bank's annual report for the 2010-11 year the RBNZ said the purpose of the office was to "improve business continuity and disaster recovery capability" in the event of a Wellington regional disaster.
"It provides day-to-day and business continuity functionality across foreign reserve management and domestic market liquidity operations, middle-office treasury support and payment and settlement services."
In its 2011-12 annual report the RBNZ said its teams in Auckland linked "virtually" to Wellington through video and desktop technology and worked side by side with their colleagues in the key areas of financial markets, treasury accounting, settlements and systems support.
"There is an ongoing testing programme to provide assurance that the Auckland office can maintain critical operations in the event of a major disruption in Wellington."
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