Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he is open to strengthening protection for deposits in Australia's banks, which also own New Zealand's banks. "Our attitude is when it comes the Australian banking system first of all we have a depositors first system. Secondly, the financial claim scheme which the government released publicly earlier this year is with the finance sector now and we will be legislating on that scheme shortly," Rudd was quoted as saying yesterday. "We will be taking into account all the views we have picked up ... most recently from the finance sector as well and that should be into the parliament very soon," Rudd said. "(But) our advice from the regulator is our banks have strong balance sheets and consumers should have confidence in those banks." The new Labour government is bringing in a Financial Claims Scheme to ensure the first A$20,000 of any deposit in an Australian bank is protected in the event of collapse. This has sparked calls for a deposit insurance scheme in New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand are the only countries in the OECD without bank deposit insurance.
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