The Reserve Bank has banned MediaWorks from its media conferences until further notice as punishment for its journalists leaking sensitive market information from the Official Cash Rate cut decision in March.
The bank hired Deloitte's forensic unit to investigate the leak after details were posted by a blogger.
That investigation found that a Newshub Mediaworks reporter secretly sent details of the decision to workers in the Newshub office from the RBNZ lockup, where journalists had long been allowed to view the monetary policy statement under embargo provided they surrendered their phones and honoured the arrangement.
Staffers in the Auckland newsroom openly discussed the embargoed decision and informed a blogger and former Reserve Bank official, Michael Reddell, that a cut was soon to be announced.
There is no evidence of money market trading as a result of the leak, but with an average of more than $100 billion in foreign exchange transactions involving New Zealand dollars daily, the central bank reacted by stopping embargoed lockups for media and analysts for both the MPS and financial stability reports, falling into line with most other central banks around the world.
