The two-year-old scheme, which guaranteed deposits up to $1 million for investors and at one point covered more than 90 deposit takers/funds, is superseded from noon today by an extended scheme that covers seven organisations and investments up to $250,000 until the end of 2011.
So far, more than $90 million has been paid from the guarantee on the deposits of eight defaulting financing companies that owed more than $1.85 billion in total, but sales of South Canterbury Finance assets could realise $1 billion.
"The [original] scheme was set up in response to exceptional circumstances, at a time of international financial market turbulence.
"That crisis is now well past us," Dr Bollard said.
"It is now time to put banks and non-bank deposit takers, such as building societies, credit unions and deposit-taking finance companies, on a normal footing."
Neither Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird nor Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre have seen a surge in advice being sought by investors in recent weeks, other than more scrutiny than usual on risk and return scenarios.
Mr McIntyre said the scheme had "served its purpose well", but with its conclusion today, investor interest had been most centred recently on bank interest rates, risk and return analysis and the large number of recent bond offerings.
"Also, there are the South Canterbury funds [payments] coming out, which means there's more cash around for investment," he said.
The major casualty the initial scheme covered was the collapse and receivership of South Canterbury Finance on August 31, owing 35,000 investors $1.6 billion.
The majority of them will have their capital and interest owing paid by the Government during coming months.
Ms Kinnaird said the guarantee helped to reduce the chance of a run on deposits in New Zealand banks and brought the country in line with Australia's guarantee.
"The initial guarantee ceasing sees all major banks no longer being covered by the guarantee, which is not needed now the world has come through the initial crisis," she said.
In an 11th-hour decision, South Canterbury was included in the extended guarantee scheme on April 1 last year and would have faced receivership without that inclusion.
The first scheme was introduced on October 12, 2008, during the global financial crisis, as major overseas banks and companies collapsed and wiped out billions of dollars of investor savings.
It was put in place to shore up investor confidence, especially within New Zealand, where finance companies were failing at an unprecedented rate.
About $6 billion in funds were eventually placed into receivership or moratorium.
Dr Bollard said the scheme had "served its purpose", having covered all retail deposits in participating New Zealand-registered banks and retail deposits by eligible depositors in non-bank deposit-taking entities, including building societies, credit unions and finance companies.
From December, non-bank deposit takers will be required to operate under new regulations overseen by the Reserve Bank, including having credit ratings from an approved rating agency, minimum capital requirements, restrictions on related-party exposure, increased governance arrangements and risk management programmes.
The liquidity provisions for the non-banks must enable them "to withstand a plausible range of shocks".
