Adrian Orr got $416k payout to protect bank secrets after abrupt RB exit

Monday, 6 October 2025

Former Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr has received a $416,000 “restraint of trade payment” after abruptly quitting the Reserve Bank earlier this year.

The payment was revealed in the bank’s annual report which said it was due to be paid this month. A spokesperson said Orr had now received the money.

The bank had previously disclosed that Orr would receive a restraint of trade payment, but not its value.

A spokesperson said the payment was agreed at the time of his appointment as governor and amounted to six months’ pay, with any income he earned during the period offset against that.

“This is to protect confidential information he was privy to as governor,” the spokesperson said.

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The Reserve Bank’s board had had the discretion to impose the restraint of trade clause since at least 2012, she indicated.

“Enforcing the restraint of trade is a right the board has.”

But the bank could not immediately confirm whether any such payments had been made to previous governors.

The pay-out took Orr’s total remuneration for the nine month period to March 31 to almost $1.2 million.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis noted the terms of the payment had been agreed in 2022. “Questions about the details of his exit agreement should be addressed to the Reserve Bank and Mr Orr,” she said.

Orr walked out of the bank on February 27, leaving deputy Christian Hawkesby as acting governor, after an apparent breakdown in relations with the bank’s board over its response to budget cuts.

The bank had previously stated that the board, then chaired by Neil Quigley, had reached an “exit agreement” with Orr on March 5, which was when his resignation became public.

But the annual report states Hawkesby did not formally replace Orr as governor until April 8.

Quigley resigned as chairperson of the bank with immediate effect on August 30, hours after Willis asked him to reflect on the challenges she said she faced answering journalists’ questions about the bank’s conduct.

Those questions had included whether she believed Quigley had misled the public on March 5 when explaining the reasons for Orr’s departure.

Deputy chairperson Rodger Finlay, who has since been acting as the board’s chairperson, said in a preamble to the bank’s annual report that the past year had seen wide-ranging change at the bank.

“A great deal has been achieved by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand towards the delivery of our mandated functions,” he said.

Hawkesby will depart in December after he was passed over for Swedish economist Anna Breman for a five-year stint as governor.

Finlay thanked both Orr and Quigley for their “enduring contributions” and Hawkesby for his “important contribution to the Reserve Bank over the past seven years in a range of leadership roles”.