The Reserve Bank of New Zealand's head of prudential supervision, Toby Fiennes, has said the central bank tends to support calls for simpler banking regulation that is less reliant on the complex and opaque risk models used by banks.

"Philosophically we would align ourselves more with the ‘simplifiers' – but not unreservedly," Fiennes told an audience in Wellington. The use of a simple leverage ratio, while attractive in many respects, could lead to more risk-taking, "as firms shift to higher