Terms, Conditions and Standard Contracts

As New Zealand and the world collectively respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, we want to provide you with an update on HSBC New Zealand’s operations. We have been monitoring the situation very closely and liaising with government, regulators and public health officials. Our priority is the wellbeing of our customers and employees.

From a business perspective, while you may experience some changes to the way in which we provide support to you, HSBC New Zealand will continue to service your needs. The size and structure of HSBC globally allows us to support our clients from multiple sites.

We have implemented our well-practiced contingency measures that ensure critical processes continue to be maintained. For the past several weeks we have had split-site working arrangements in place for the small number of essential roles that currently cannot be performed from home, while the majority of our employees in New Zealand have been working from home since 23 March. In addition, we have strictly implemented all NZ government and HSBC Group travel restriction guidance and self-quarantine requirements for employees since the COVID-19 outbreak began, and have also raised awareness among our employees on the need for good personal hygiene.

For our corporate and institutional clients, we continue to provide all of our regular services. We’re ready to help should COVID-19 cause any problems to your operations, so please contact your Relationship Manager should the need arise.

For our Retail customers, in response to the NZ government raising the national alert level to 4, our One Queen Street Branch will be closed until further notice. For cash withdrawals, please utilise Westpac’s nationwide ATM network. For other banking needs, we recommend that you make use of our online banking options or call our contact centre on 0800 02 80 88 if calling within New Zealand, or on +64 9 368 8557 if calling from outside of New Zealand (international toll charges apply) and we can help you remotely. Please note, however, that the operation hours of our New Zealand Call Centre will be reduced to 7:00am to 7:00pm NZST daily until further notice (this is in response to a COVID-19 community quarantine advisory impacting our contact centre operations).

You are also welcome of course to call your Relationship Manager to discuss any of your banking needs.

If you are an HSBC customer facing potential hardship as a result of COVID-19, we have solutions that may be available, so please contact your Relationship Manager to discuss support options. We also encourage you to investigate the financial support being provided by the New Zealand Government in response to COVID-19, as summarised below.

Government financial support

In response to COVID-19 the Government is acting to support the economy with a $12.1 billion support package which includes:

• A wage subsidy scheme
• Business cash flow and tax measures
• Leave and self-isolation support
• Help with essential costs.

For more information, please visit the Unite Against Covid-19 Government website. If you’re not sure what assistance may be available, or don’t know who to contact for help, please call the free government helpline on 0800 779 997 or on 0800 22 66 57 (8am–1am, 7 days a week).

Please note that there has been a significant increase in fraud globally during the COVID-19 outbreak. Please take extra care, especially when transacting online.

The wellbeing of our customers and employees is very important to us, so thank you for your support. This is a fast changing situation, so we will continue to keep you updated on our website with new information as it develops. Should you have any additional questions, please contact your usual representative at HSBC New Zealand who will be happy to assist.

For now, we will continue to do our bit to help our customers and communities during this unprecedented time.

Changes to New Zealand tax laws about investment income come into effect on 1 April 2020. We have summarised below the impact of these tax changes on you with respect to your HSBC account. For more detailed information on the changes, please visit the IRD’s webpage.

If you receive investment income from HSBC, some of these changes may affect you as follows:

1. You must provide your IRD number to HSBC to make sure you are on the right tax rate. If you have not provided HSBC with your IRD number, a new non declaration rate of 45% for resident withholding tax (RWT) applies to all interest paid on your investment income earned from us from 1 April 2020.
2. HSBC will no longer provide annual RWT certificates unless you have not provided your IRD number to us and the gross domestic interest paid on your investment income exceeds NZ$50 during the tax year. The information previously contained in the annual RWT certificate will be available electronically through myIR on Inland Revenue’s website.
3. HSBC will no longer require you to provide us with a certificate of exemption for RWT from 1 April 2020. Instead, you will need to notify us of your RWT exempt status so we can verify your status on the electronic RWT exempt status register. You will also need to notify us when you RWT exempt status changes.

Where to go for further information

Further information can be found on the IRD website. If you need to update your details, please either
speak to your Relationship Manager or call our 24/7 contact centre on 0800 02 80 88 if calling within New Zealand, or on +64 9 368 8557 if calling from outside of New Zealand (international toll charges apply).

Note: HSBC NZ does not provide tax advice. We recommend you obtain independent tax advice for your own circumstances.