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New Zealand fuel retailer Waitomo says the writing is on the wall as banks move to wind up new lending to petrol stations.
On Wednesday, BNZ acknowledged it was pulling back from lending to some petrol stations.
In a statement to RNZ, it said all business lending was determined on a case-by-case basis.
"Decisions are risk based, and a range of factors are considered, for example, the type of business, balance sheet strength, geographic location, long-term sustainability of the business, and our market exposure.
"As we advised the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee yesterday, in this case we have looked at both our exposure to petrol stations and the long-term future of that sector and have decided that currently we do not want to increase our exposure to that sector."
New Zealand Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont also told RNZ that banks recognised the risks associated with climate change for the New Zealand economy, businesses, and households.
"The government has a range of climate-related policies and regulation aimed at addressing this issue, including climate-related risk disclosures and an emissions reduction plan. The banks take these regulatory obligations very seriously.
"Banks in New Zealand operate in a competitive environment. There are over 18 registered banks here. Of the five banks heavily involved in agri-lending, none has a dominant share of the market, which suggests there are strong competitive forces at play."
Is new lending drying up for petrol stations
Waitomo chief executive Simon Parham told Nine to Noon rural communities would be the most impacted by this decision, and Federated Farmers said similar decision were being made around lending to farmers too.
Federated Farmers wanted the Commerce Commission to investigate what it called cartel-like, anti-competitive behaviour by banks, which it said was being driven by a UN-convened alliance which required clients to meet emissions reduction targets to get lower interest rates. All the major banks in New Zealand - or their parent companies - are part of this Net-Zero Alliance.
While Waitomo chief executive Simon Parham said it had not been denied new lending yet, he knew of other smaller owner-operators of petrol stations who had been cut off.
He said it all went back to the Reserve Bank and the financed emissions reporting now required.
"Whether it's unintended consequences, or actually the consequences of this, it basically means that just because you're providing a service and that service is providing hydrocarbons, petrol and diesel to the community, you're no longer flavour of the month."
Parham said BNZ were out of touch with reality, and said it was not realistic for everyone to drive an electric vehicle by 2030.
"It's such a stretch from the fundamentals of what our fleet makeup is at the moment, that it's just, it's unreal.
"It's going to have catastrophic impacts for a lot of the communities that we operate in."
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre told Nine to Noon a lot of rural petrol stations were "really, really concerned" about the decision.
"We've obviously been talking a lot about banking from a farming context, and they've reached out to say, look, you know, you think life's bad for you, you should see what's happening to us.
He said documentation given to an owner of a petrol station by BNZ said new and increased lending was prohibited across the entire oil and gas sector value chain.
"To me, this is a huge concern for these people and for the rural communities as well that rely upon them."
"If BNZ were true to their word and they're considering this from a risk point of view, they would do what normal banks would do.
And that's increase the equity requirements and possibly even the interest rate to allow for the risk, because those petrol stations are going to be required by New Zealanders and rural New Zealanders in particular for quite some time yet."