15th Dec 20, 11:47am By Gareth Vaughan The Reserve Bank (RBNZ) has once again raised the old chestnut of having a tool to restrict high debt-to-income ratio mortgage lending included in its macro-prudential toolkit. The latest request of the Government, whose acquiescence is required, comes in the RBNZ's response to Finance Minister Grant Robertson, released on Friday, over his concerns about soaring house prices. "We have also previously consulted on introducing debt serviceability restrictions, such as debt-to-income (DTI) limits, on mortgage lending. Although we consider that restrictions on high-DTI lending could complement the current LVR [loan-to-value ratio] policy, we note that this tool is not currently part of the Reserve Bank’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Minister of Finance. We request that the Government gives consideration to adding restrictions on debt serviceability (that would include DTI limits) to the permitted tools in 2021," the RBNZ said.