A senior Reserve Bank official has taken aim at the big banks and accused them of stifling innovation and competition by underinvesting in technology.

Addressing delegates at a Payments NZ conference on Tuesday, the banking regulator’s director of money and cash, Ian Woolford, claimed there was a role for better regulation to push banks to keep up with their peers overseas.

But the banks have pushed back - with Westpac head Catherine McGrath saying regulations were holding the banks back.

NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny unpacks the regulations impacting the banks.

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