About this report
Part 7 of the Banking Code of Practice (the Code) contains obligations to ensure that people can make fully informed decisions before agreeing to be a guarantor.
It outlines the information banks must give prospective guarantors and sets out requirements for signing, withdrawing or ending a guarantee. It also includes conditions for banks when they seek to enforce a guarantee.
In August 2021, we published an inquiry report: Banks’ compliance with the Banking Code’s guarantee obligations (2021 Guarantees Report). The 2021 Guarantees Report made 23 recommendations for improved practice on guarantees.
In 2022 we conducted an inquiry to examine the progress that banks had made since we published the 2021 Guarantees Report. This is the report on that follow-up inquiry (2023 Guarantees Follow-Up Report).