Comparable levels of overseas borrowing by some Asian banks have been sufficient to make foreign lenders very nervous, and yet similar nervousness has not been at all evident in New Zealand. Why?
I can only conclude that the foreign lenders take considerable comfort from the fact that most of the banks operating in New Zealand now are in fact wholly-owned by foreign banks, or are indeed branches of foreign banks. Those parents are seen as being financially strong, and fully able to back the operations of their New Zealand subsidiaries or branches.