Wellington, Jan 22 NZPA - The New Zealand dollar fell to multi-week lows against a range of currencies today after United States President Barack Obama proposed the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s.

The plan to ban banks from proprietary trading, and owning, investing in or sponsoring hedge funds and private equity groups knocked stock markets and increased investor anxiety.

"It really set the cat amongst the pigeons. Equity markets fell quite sharply and that saw risk appetite come off the boil and growth sensitive currencies sold heavily," said Danica Hampton, senior currency strategist at BNZ.

The NZ dollar traded just below US71c today, its lowest since December 29, before settling at US71.30c at 5pm from US72.09c at the same time yesterday.

International developments such as the bank regulations story are expected to dominate markets for several days but the focus next week will turn to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's official cash rate review on January 28.

The bank is expected to keep rates on hold after Consumer Price Index data for the December quarter was lower than expected.

"I think the CPI set the scene and it does suggest there is no urgency," Ms Hampton said.

The NZ dollar was 0.5046 euro at 5pm, which is around a 2-1/2-week low and compared to 0.5115 euro at 5pm yesterday.

It fell to 64.04 yen from 65.97 yen yesterday and the trade weighted index was 65.04 from 65.83 yesterday.

The NZ dollar was A78.86c against the Australian dollar from A79.01c yesterday.