Updating your building society's name or rules

How to advise us of changes

Your society may alter its rules by special resolution, this includes changes to your society’s name. You must register any change to your building society’s rules with us. Rule changes are only valid once they have been registered.

Make sure that any rule or name changes for your society:

  • Are made in accordance with your current rules.
  • Have been approved by a special resolution of members.
  • Are documented as set out in Form 2 of the Building Societies Regulations 1989 and signed by a director and the secretary, and
  • Registered with us within 14 days of the special resolution being passed.

We recommend you seek independent legal advice when changing your rules.

The information you need to provide

Prepare the following documents and upload them online:

  • A signed application for registration of alteration to rules.
    Refer to Form 2 in the Building Societies Regulations 1989 for the format of your application
  • A copy of the rule changes. If you have made comprehensive changes:
    • Provide the complete set of new rules, and
    • Complete and attach a rules check sheet.
      Refer to Form 3 in the Building Societies Regulations 1989 for the rules checklist to use.

Building Societies Regulations 1989 New Zealand Legislation

File formats for uploading documents

Any documents you upload must be:

  • clear and easily read
  • saved in PDF format, and
  • no larger than 20MB.

How to change the rules or name online

You will need:

  • a RealMe® login, and
  • confirmed authority with us to update this building society.

If it is your first time updating details for a building society, you will be prompted for information to set up an online account with us.

For help check our guides

Accessing the register using RealMe and confirming your authority with us

Step by step

Update the registered office address or address for service

  1. Log in using your RealMe login.
  2. Select 'Authorities' from the menu.
  3. Choose your building society from the list.
  4. Select ‘Create Filing Service’.
  5. Choose ‘Change of Rules’ (for the type of service).
  6. Upload the amendment to rules documents. 
  7. Submit your change.
Update a society

We will send you an email confirming that your change has been submitted. We will then review your changes and contact you if we have any questions or need any further information. We aim to complete our review within 10 working days. 

If we register your change, we will confirm that by email. If we reject your change, we will email you and outline the reasons why.

You can check the status of your change by logging into the Building Societies Register. Choose the ‘Filing Services’ option to view any changes that are in progress. If your change status shows as ‘Draft’ you can edit or discard it by choosing the drop-down arrow alongside the filing service. 

Check the status of an update

Last updated September 2025