Hamish Rutherford: Political pressure rising on a political Reserve Bank 28 Apr, 2021 05:27 AM 5 minutes to read Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr in 2018. Photo / Mark Mitchell. OPINION: Precisely who is in charge when the Reserve Bank decides to restrict lending in the name of maintaining financial stability has been hard to pin down for a long time. Back in 2013, the Reserve Bank began the process of developing loan to value ratio (LVR) restrictions, which would have a significant impact on many aspiring first-home buyers, a politically important group that even then was facing diminishing affordability. But the central bank's then governor, Graeme Wheeler, a former top international official with little political experience, was nowhere to be seen, as a debate over the policy brewed.