KEY POINTS:
The National Party and the Greens are urging banks to be careful how they handle customers who find it hard to pay their mortgages.
National's leader, John Key, said today the banking industry had been helped by the Government through its deposit guarantee scheme.
"There is no escaping the fact that a government guarantee has a real and large value to the banking system," he said in a speech to the Waikato Chamber of Commerce.
"My expectation is that in the light of this, banks will be very careful about the manner in which they deal with customers who may, as a consequence of the global financial crisis, find it hard to meet their obligations."
Mr Key said he expected banks to "do what they can" to help people in the same way they had been extended a helping hand by the Government.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said banks should behave responsibly and "act sensitively" in return for taxpayer-funded guarantees.
"We don't want to see big penalty payments forced on borrowers who struggle to meet their repayment schedule if they lose their job," he said.
Dr Norman said banks in New Zealand were now underwritten by the taxpayer.
"Some of them are actually now owned by taxpayers, such as ABN AMRO, owned by UK and Dutch taxpayers," he said.
"If taxpayers have to carry the can, then taxpayers have the right to tell the banks to behave responsibly."
- NZPA
