The sharp dressing head of the New Zealand Bankers' Association has been named as the new chief executive of BusinessNZ.

Kirk Hope, a lawyer who has held roles in government relations at Westpac, the New Zealand Law Society and the Financial Services Federation, takes up the role in February.

He has been the face of the banking lobby group since early 2012, a period characterised by record banking profits and the introduction of loan to value restrictions on mortgages by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Hope replaces Phil O'Reilly, who announced in May that he was quitting the high profile position at 10 years.

O'Reilly, who is holding a leaving party in Wellington next week, will take up a public policy consultancy role in Wellington.

BusinessNZ president Laurie Margrain said Hope's "experience and leadership profile would create strong value and continue BusinessNZ's record of successful advocacy".

Hope said he was attracted by the prospect of working at the larger organisation working across the business sector.

"Phil and his team have built a really strong organisation, effectively replacing the Business Roundtable as the preeminent business lobby in the country," Hope said.

The natural question is what do you do next. What I have been thinking about is how you can continue that...but I need to get my feet under the desk."

Hope had now spent around 15 years in government facing roles, which he said involved taking the views of business and government and "synthesising them into something that is meaningful".

On Friday morning New Zealand Bankers' Association chairman, Anthony Healy, the chief executive of BNZ, wrote to the banking sector announcing the move.

"While we are of course sorry to see Kirk leave the Association, the Business New Zealand role is a fantastic opportunity. Kirk has done a superb job of leading the association through significant change in the industry and has substantially increased regulatory oversight and activity," Healy wrote.

This article was originally sourced from Stuff NZ here and was written by Hamish Rutherford.