Letters: Why the Reserve Bank should not be independent of democratic will 6 May, 2021 05:00 PM 3 minutes to read The Reserve Bank of New Zealand should never be independent, writes Heather Marion Smith. Photo / File The Reserve Bank of New Zealand should never be independent, writes Heather Marion Smith. Photo / File Whanganui Chronicle Liam Dann (Chronicle, May 4) asks: "Is the central bank independence under attack?" What independence? The Reserve Bank Act (1989) was designed to oppose "political interference" but not oppose outside influences from bodies like the Bank for International Settlements and Wall Street's credit-rating agencies. No coincidence that the legislation followed soon after the 1987 financial crash scared investors away from risky blue-chip stock and toward the easy, if unspectacular, returns yielded by public utilities and government debt securities.