The effectiveness of the bank lending channel of monetary policy hinges on the extent to which changes in the availability of bank credit relative to non-bank credit are systematically transmitted to the real sector of the economy. On this count, there is no evidence of a link between three finance mix ,variables and economic activity in New Zealand during selected intervals over the 1967-87 period. Similar, unfavourable results are reported by the investigation of the connection between movements in an interest rate spread and real economic performance between 1975 and 1994. Moreover, neither the finance mix variable nor the spread respond consistently to changes in various indicators of monetary policy. The results reported in the paper cast serious doubt on the existence of a potent bank lending channel of monetary policy in New Zealand either before or after the reforms of the mid-1980s.