Ms Noeline Blackwell:

A personal bugbear of mine is that the Central Bank's strategic plan specifically names the strengthening of consumer protection, that is, the protection of consumers of financial services, as one of its high level goals. It seems to us that this is interpreted from the side of bankers looking at how they perceive consumers should be protected in financial services rather than from a consumer perspective, even to the point of outsourcing its own information function to the National Consumer Agency. It always seems extraordinary that one goes to the Central Bank and one cannot get an answer. One will be directed elsewhere, either to the National Consumer Agency or to the Financial Services Ombudsman. That strategic plan the Central Bank has developed is until next year. One of the things we would like to see the Central Bank doing is being more relevant to consumers. The Central Bank has an advisory panel but consumers seem to be always viewed from the perspective of bankers. We would like to see others ask the Central Bank how it would look to the consumer perspective and consumer rights when developing its next plan.